Party's internal poll to pick top leaders confirmed

Senior members of the Communist Party held an internal poll in May to select their favoured top leaders, Xinhua confirmed.

"The party's Central Committee held a meeting of leading party cadres in Beijing in May and 'democratically recommended' members of the Politburo and its Standing Committee," state-run Xinhua said yesterday, a day after the new seven-man Politburo Standing Committee and wider 25-member Politburo were unveiled.

It is the first time the ruling party has given the public a glance into the opaque backroom selection of the country's top leaders, and confirmed two South China Morning Post reports in June and August.

Xinhua said "democratic recommendation" was the reason behind this week's smooth transfer of power, even though many believe that behind-the-scenes horse-trading also played a crucial role.

"It [the poll] guaranteed the smooth production of a collective leadership, which is strong and united, and reflects the will of the whole party and is accepted by people inside and outside the party," Xinhua said.

Though it did not give any details of the "democratic recommendation", party insiders said it referred to an unprecedented internal poll of 370 members and alternate members of the previous Central Committee, which stood down on Wednesday.