Morning ClicksNo greater contest of power seats in this Congress, says Mingjing

Quoting an inside source, the US-based Chinese news site refutes speculation last week that this Party Congress might make a step toward demonstrating its own legimitacy.

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Published: 8:39am, 13 Nov 2012Updated: 12:36pm, 13 Nov 2012

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Last week it was reported that the 18th Party Congress could see contested elections this week for seats on the Communist Party's Politburo, and possibly even the Politburo Standing Committee; for the Central Committee, which shapes the two bodies, it was also said the differential rate of vying candidates against the number of contested seats could be raised from the 8 per cent rate allowed during the 17th Party Congress in 2007 to 20 per cent.

Yesterday, however, New York-based Chinese news site Mingjing, quoting inside sources, claimed an exclusive tip-off that there won't be any significant increase in the number of Congress delegates competing for Central Committee seats or competitive elections to form either of the two higher bodies.

And there definitely is no sign of budding intra-party democracy, wrote Mingjing, quoting its source:

More than 4,000 journalists are in Beijing to do interviews at the 18th Party Congress, but aside from photo ops and a few tidbits, they have no way of finding out what's really going on inside.

Not quite breaking news, but it is something to keep us going until news does start to trickle out tomorrow, the final day of the Congress.