A GROUP of Hongkong deputies to the NPC has made a plea for greater democracy in the election of senior leaders for the national legislature.
The local delegates have proposed they be given a real choice to elect the 20 vice-chairmen of the NPC, instead of having to rubber-stamp the Chinese Communist Party nominees in a ''same-candidate election'', where the number of seats and candidates are the same.
Initiated by a veteran deputy Mr Ng Hong-mun, the delegates yesterday sent a joint letter to the presidium of the NPC to demand laws concerning vice-chairmen be amended for a more democratic election.
Mr Ng said: ''By doing so, it will demonstrate to people in the mainland and the world that China has made a step forward in democratic development. We're convinced that there will be positive impact.'' The delegates noted in the letter that elections for the Standing Committee of the NPC in the Seventh session, starting in 1988, were changed from ''same-candidate'' to an election in which the number of candidates exceeded the number of seats.
''We believe that the more democratic election method should be extended to the election for vice-chairmen. In future, it should be adopted in electing the chairman, state president and vice-president,'' they say.
Mr Ng maintained that they had already taken the specific conditions of China into account when making the democratic demand.
