Delegate deadline a hard ask for Beijing

Beijing said yesterday the city's party congress would be held from June 29 to July 3, but analysts said the later-than-usual start suggested that preparations for the upcoming national congress of the Communist Party might not be going as smoothly as planned.

The municipal party committee set the date for the five-day congress at a plenum yesterday. It would make Beijing the last provincial-level constituency to hold its party congress, Beijing Television reported.

The announcement suggests that the municipality will be hard-pressed to elect its delegates to the national congress before an end-of-June deadline.

The People's Daily earlier reported that the party leadership set June 30 as the deadline for constituencies to elect delegates to the national party congress. In practice, the regional party congress is intended to be a forum where delegates are named.

'There may be some problems, or a failure to reach consensus on crucial issues, behind the belated date,' said Hu Xingdou , a political commentator with the Beijing Institute of Technology.

Beijing will follow Chongqing as the last regional constituency to hold its own party congress to elect representatives. The delay in Chongqing is understandable, following the abrupt ousting of its party boss and Politburo member, Bo Xilai , in March.