Article 4 of the Common Program

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The inaugural election orchestrated by the CCP occurred in the late 1931 within the Chinese Soviet Republic. This election law delineated voter eligibility by social class, excluding various groups ranging from those deemed to exploit labor to merchants, along with individuals affiliated with the Nationalist Party. Voting was conducted openly with raised hands, and a plurality was requisite for victory. The basis of the 1953 election laws wasn't drawn from the Nationalist system or its pre-1949 voting trials but rather from the Soviet model. The most significant departure from previous Chinese electoral practices in the 1953 system was the adoption of "single-candidate elections," a concept directly borrowed from Soviet election legislation. This innovation, where only one candidate was put forward for each available position, effectively turned elections from a selection process into a mere ratification of candidates already chosen through alternative methods.
The organic law of the CPPCC allowed the possibility of setting up political consultative conferences in major cities, important areas, and provincial capitals. These political consultative conferences had the right to elect a local government. At the end of 1951, political consultative conferences had gathered to elect local government in 28 provinces, 8 administrative Regions, in 154 cities, in 2043 districts, and in 104 districts of minorities. These elections sometimes took place in a very fast time schedule. On December 9, 1949, the PLA marched into Urumqi and 8 days later a new government was elected.
On January 13, 1953, the regime announced that at the end of that year the first election for the National People’s Congress (NPC) will be held. This NPC will be a legislature parliament. See also Article 12 . On March 1, 1953 the first election law was enacted. It stated, every citizen of the PRC who has reached the age of 18 shall have the right to elect and to be elected, irrespective of nationality or race, sex, profession, social origin, religious belief, education, property holdings, or length of residence. Women shall have the right to elect and to be elected on equal terms with men. However, the following shall have no right to elect and to be elected: (1) Elements of the landlord class whose status has not yet been changed according to law; (2) Counterrevolutionaries who have been deprived of political rights according to law; (3) Others who have been deprived of political rights according to law (for example all Buddhists unless their organizations were members of the government sponsored Buddhist Association (see Article 5) and their individual political behaviour was beyond doubt.); and, (4) Mentally deficient persons
A solution had to be found for the Soviet nationals who lived in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and other Regions for years but were either not allowed to enter the SU or were not willing to go back. After consultation with Moscow, it was decided they will be treated as Chinese citizens and gradually naturalized. They not only were granted universal suffrage, but during the land reform movement the Soviet nationals were also assigned lands just as Chinese citizens were.
In the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Region, established on September 3, 1952, the issue of determining the nationality of the Korean population became a significant challenge. With local elections approaching, conducting a census and registering voters was essential. However, resolving the nationality status of the large Korean population in China was urgent. Yanbian, located in Northeast China, is separated from Korea by only a river, leading to frequent movement between the two sides. This fluidity created a complex situation, making it difficult to differentiate between ethnic Koreans with Chinese citizenship and Korean nationals. Given the ongoing Korean War, many Koreans sought Chinese citizenship, but addressing this issue solely on a voluntary basis risked creating misunderstandings with friendly North Korea. To manage this, the government decided to use October 1, 1949, as the cutoff date for determining the nationalities of Koreans in China.

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The elections scheduled for 1954 were postponed due to the unavailability of the national census results. Eventually, when the census revealed a population exceeding 600 million, 323 million individuals received voting cards.

There was no possibility to vote on different political parties or programs. The electors had to choose from candidates who are thoroughly screened. The elections were held throughout the year and in spring 1954, 86% of the registered voters on local level had voted by show of hand. The concept of “election” was for many people very confusing. There was a prevalent disinterest in or misinterpretation of the elections. The involvement and contribution to the "small group discussions" held prior to the voting were lacking, as one account expressed regret that only a handful of activists engaged in conversation during these sessions, while the rest of the participants remained silent. Even, officials in Beijing exhibited a negative attitude despite being associated with "top-level organs of the central government." The experiences of elections since 1909 had already convinced some people that voting could never reliably select the talented and virtuous. Instead, elections merely aggregated private interests, which could be manipulated by unscrupulous campaigners for personal benefit.

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In total, 5½ million members for the local congresses were chosen. The members of the people’s congresses on a higher level were chosen in staged elections and finally the NPC members would be elected. This procedure was too complicated and, in the middle of 1954, it was decided to send a list of 1226 delegates to the provincial people’s congresses for approval. In September 1954, the first NPC convened.
In Article 12 of the common program, the procedure of election will be looked at in greater detail.

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Chapter 1 of Common Program

• Road to Common Program
• Common Program
• Bibliography
• Documents