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Nanjing Elects Community Leaders
For the first time in their lives, some 3,000 residents living in the Xijie community of the Baixia District in east China's Nanjing directly elected their community leaders.
Nanjing is among the first group of trial cities in China where local residents will be able to elect their community council through direct elections.
Qiu Xuebin, who was laid off from Nanjing Yongfeng Chemical Plant two years ago, was elected director of the community council by an overwhelming majority of 2,584 votes.
"I was chairman of the worker's council in the factory, and when I saw the election advertisement in a local newspaper in April, I thought my experience could be beneficial," Qiu said, explaining the reason why he ran for the post.
During the election, his ardency and sincerity moved the residents, who cast him a vote of trust. There were four candidates out of the five that won the election, including Qiu.
The 67-year-old Lang Zhaoxiang, a local resident, said he was satisfied with the results. "It's a good way for residents to elect their own leaders, they will surely do a good job," he said.
So far, elections in some 400 communities have been completed. Most of the management leaders elected into community councils in Nanjing are young, by about 10 years younger on average than the previous leading groups, and have a higher level of education.
Professor Wu Yiming with the Nanjing Normal University, believes that the election of community council members by residents is of great significance to enhancing democratic autonomy at the basic level in cities.
However, Zhang Dajin, deputy director of the Nanjing Civil Affairs Bureau, pointed to the election as "an elementary step" in promoting democratic autonomy in communities.
The monitoring and decision-making mechanism should be enhanced in the second step, he said.
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