The electoral law is an important law that guarantees Chinese citizens' legal rights to vote and to be elected.

China drafted its electoral law for people's congresses at various levels in 1953, and it was later amended in 1979. Since 1979, the law has been amended five times.

The law applies to the election of representatives to people's congresses at various levels in China. Selection and appointment of other civil servants is done in accordance with organizational laws of the National People's Congress and governments at various levels.

It rules on the election organs, representative quota, electoral districts, voter registration, election procedures, dismissal and resignation of officials, and punishments for people who interfere with elections.

In China, people's representatives are elected directly or indirectly depending on the level of administrative regions.

Representatives of the people's congresses at county and township levels are directly elected. Representatives of the people's congress at city, provincial and national levels are elected indirectly by the electoral organs.

Election committees are set up in the regions using direct election.

The main responsibilities of the election committee are: dividing electoral districts, allocating representative quotas for different electoral districts, registering voters, verifying voter qualifications, disclosing the names of voters, processing and resolving complaints regarding the voter rolls, setting the election date, checking and publicizing candidates' qualifications, deciding and publishing lists of candidates according to the viewpoints of the majority of voters, organizing voters and hosting elections, confirming the validity of election results, and publishing lists of the elected candidates.

Direct elections are organized by the standing committee of the corresponding people's congresses. The county-level people's congress standing committee is in charge of all election committees of local townships.

The electoral law also rules on how to decide the number of people's representatives at various levels. Adding the base number established for people's congress of various levels to the quota calculated according to local population yields the final total number of people's representatives. There is also an upper limit for representatives for people's congress of various levels. (Refer to the following table on the calculation method).

As for those autonomous regions, cities, counties and townships that are sparsely populated by minority ethnic groups, the number of representatives can be increased by about 5 percent above the standard quota.

After the total quota of representatives of a local people's congress is set, it generally will not be changed. If the administrative district changes or large-scale construction projects cause a major shift in population, the representative quota of related people's congress will be changed according to the law.

The representative quota of regional people's congress are allocated to its lower-level administrative districts by the standing committee of the people's congress or the election committee according to the population of the districts.

The quota allocation should follow the equality principle among people, districts and ethnic groups. Each representative should represent the same number of people inside his or her district to ensure each district and each ethnic group has their due number of representatives. Townships with extremely small populations should at least have one person in the county-level people's congress.

According to the rules of electoral law, the national people's congress should have no more than 3,000 representatives.

The number of representatives from each province, autonomous region and municipality to the National People's Congress should be decided according to the base number, the population size, and other quotas. The quota allocation, including representative quotas of the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, Taiwan and the People's Liberation Army, are decided by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

The author is an official at the legislative affairs commission of the National People's Congress Standing Committee.