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North China's Shanxi Province has launched an innovative way to select candidates for its local elections, hoping for a cleaner political environment after a spate of corruption cases.
The township-level leadership transition ended in early May and the county-level election is under way in Shanxi's Lyuliang, the first prefecture-level city in the province to try the new system.
This year, there will be elections in over 2,850 county-level regions and more than 32,000 townships.
In Shanxi Province, more than 300 positions were left vacant as a large number of officials were implicated in graft, including seven provincial-level officials. Media outlets have described the ousting as a "cave-in."
Under such circumstances, the way in which officials are selected and promoted has become a thorny issue, said Wang Rulin, secretary of Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
To prepare for the elections once every five years, the province last year examined all of its 70,000 officials, resulting in more than 5,000 being penalized for violating the CPC codes of conduct.
To date, six documents have been issued to stop "problematic" officials from being promoted.
"We have to learn a lesson," said Wang.
Surprise Interview
On a workday afternoon, Li Hongzuo, vice president of the Party school in Lyuliang City, rushed to an emergency meeting. When he arrived, he was informed that he was one of 38 officials to be assigned the role of inspector. They were tasked with interviewing all of the city's candidates for official positions.
The inspectors had all communication to the outside world cut.
Almost at the same time, Li Ruigang, a township-level official in the city's management center for government services, was informed he had to attend "training" at the Party school. This turned out to be a surprise interview designed to determine who would be nominated for the coming county-level election.
"I thought it was a course on Party rules and leadership instructions," he said.
Li is a common surname in China and the two Lis are not related.
Li Ruigang was given seven minutes to prepare a speech on how he would use his power if he was elected a county-level official.
"I have thought about what causes corruption and ways we can eradicate it -- so the topic was not difficult for me," he said. He was given a score of 90, one of the highest, from the inspectors.
Li Ruigang was one of 13 to stand out as suitable for a county-level position. Two candidates did not even show up.
"It they had known the event affected their future, they would not have dared miss it," said Li Ruigang.
Li Ruigang had held his position for 13 years and never expected promotion. "I was told by a colleague that I was lucky to be given a chance for promotion -- I am not local, and I am not well connected."
Wu Zhenjie, an official supervising local elections in Shanxi Provincial government, said the surprise interview was arranged to prevent interviewees seeking connections or offering briberies to interviewers.
"Instead of being chosen by higher leaders, candidates must compete. This has eliminated corruption and prompted cadres to improve their workstyles," he said.
Screening Tightened
According to Ma Jinbiao, an official with the Organization Department of CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee, a candidate faces more than 10 steps to be promoted, including public recommendation, qualification check, deliberation by related authorities, public notification and voting by local lawmakers.
Inspectors will now supervise the elections in cities, counties and townships across the province, and public tipoffs are encouraged.
As of mid May, organizational authorities in Lyuliang City had revoked the election qualification of a man, whose father-in-law, a local senior lawmaker, had lobbied for him by sending text messages to voters.
During the township-level elections in the district, Zhang Nengqiang was finally elected director of the Fengshan Subdistrict Office at the age of 43. In China, a township-level official usually will not be promoted if he or she is older than 45.
"I'm very grateful I was elected without offering any bribes," he said.
The cleaner political air has also eased the financial burden on local companies, as few officials dare to request election "sponsorship."
Niu Zhiming, a tourism entrepreneur in Lyuliang, said he and his peers have not been asked to back any candidates, without disclosing how much he donated last time.
In an electoral fraud case in Hengyang City, Hunan Province, in 2013, 56 provincial legislators offered bribes totalling 110 million yuan (16.7 million U.S. dollars) to nearly 600 municipal lawmakers and members of staff.
A total of 467 people have been given Party or administrative punishments after they were implicated, and 69 had their cases transferred to judicial organs.
The CPC in April issued a statement stressing a ban on forming factions, bribery, fraud and leaking confidential information, among other types of malpractice. It urged local Party committees, disciplinary organs and organizational departments to carefully oversee the elections.
(APD)
