A Study On The Right To Vote Of Peasant Workers

The right to vote is the basic political right? of every citizen given by? our constitution. It is equal , universal among every citizen and cannot been transferred.?The realization of citizens right to vote is an important manifestation of the principle of popular sovereignty.?To achieve their ownership rights, citizens will realize managing their own national public affairs indirectly through representatives elected by them.?With the rapid development of market economy, the mobility of our population is increasing. A large number of peasant workers move into cities and its scale is increasing and increasing, thus a well-known "Boom " phenomenon has been being formed. China's peasant workers have been making outstanding contributions to our socialist construction. But their social treatment is very poor, which is not commensurate with their contributions.?Our state has adopted corresponding policies to protect the peasant workers'economic, cultural and educational rights. However, protection of political rights are lagging far behind the development of society. Particularly the neglect of peasant workers'right to vote is a serious impediment to our Political civilization.?Because of restrictions on the household registration system and the loopholes in the electoral law and other laws and regulations, peasant workers has actually become a political edge, their right to vote in name only.?In the election practice, neither peasant workers participate in the election of domicile, nor do they participate in the elections where they work.?Extensive exercise of the right to vote can increase the degree of civilization of a country and promote its social democratization process.?This situation, in which peasant workers exercise their right to vote, is a serious impediment to China's democratization process and is hindering the construction of our constitutional system.?This paper attempts to explore the issue of peasant workers'the right to vote from the constitutional perspective to find a viable solution path on the two levels , the institutional and legal ones.? Except the introduction and conclusion, the article consists of four parts.In the first part, we summarize peasant workers'right to vote.?First, through investigating the meaning and characteristics of peasant workers and the right to vote, we came to the concept of peasant workers'right to vote.?Then we introduced the corresponding provision on peasant workers'right to vote in our laws and regulations.?Finally we did theoretical analysis on the issue of the necessity and the importance of the exercise of peasant workers'right to vote. In the second part, we inspect the status and problems of peasant workers'right to vote.?Because of the separation between peasant workers'domiciles and work places or residences, peasant workers have not effectively exercised their right to vote in the domiciles or work places. This problem is mainly reflected in:?the distribution system of representation makes it difficult for peasant workers to achieve their right to vote in the work places;? no uniform election date leads to the "two election "phenomenon;? the proportion of peasant workers who participate in elections is very low from which we can see that peasant workers have very low activeness in elections; peasant worker deputies are of great mobility, less able to perform their duties.In the third part, we analyze the cause of the problem of peasant workers'right to vote.? Through in-depth analysis, this paper argue that the causes of peasant workers'right to vote problem mainly include the following four points:? First, the constraints of the household registration system. The constraints of long-standing dual household registration system lead to that the vote and the household registration of peasant workers are closely linked. Consequently, generally speaking, they can only exercise their right to vote in the household.?However, with the peasant workers going into the cities, this household registration system has become a serious impediment to the realization of the right to vote of this group.?Second, the election law loopholes.?This?is?mainly reflected in the demarcation of constituencies, voter registration, the method of representative candidates coming into being and the system of introducing the official representative candidates.?Third, the lack of the association mechanism of interests.?At present, China has not established an effective association mechanism for electoral interests. As elections are out of touch with interests, it is difficult for peasant workers to get tangible benefits from this election system, which leads to their indifference attitude to the elections.?Fourth, causes from peasant workers themselves.?This is mainly reflected in the weak election sense of peasant workers and the lack of subject consciousness.In the fourth part ,we raise the protection path of peasant workers'right to vote.?To be directed against?problems existing in peasant workers'right to vote , this paper attempts to propose the following suggestion:?First, we must reform the household registration system so that we can fundamentally remove the obstacle for peasant workers exercising their right to vote.?At the operational level, first of all we must eliminate the dual household registration system and establish the household a unitary registration system.?Secondarily,?the state establishes the household registration system based on identity card.? Second, to improve the relevant provisions of the electoral law. Firstly, to reform the method of dividing electoral districts. We can adopt the method of dividing electoral districts depending on residence areas.? Secondly, to reform voter registration system.?For?example,?to?change the passive registration to voluntary registration;?to?combine network registration with manual registration .During all of these, we must consider that the qualification of voters is restricted by the years of living or working in the same city.?Thirdly, to improve the method for forming the representative candidates and the introduction procedures for formal representative candidates.?The generation of the representative candidates should mainly be nominated jointly by the constituents and the number of representatives generated by nominating jointly should be accounted for a considerable proportion in the total number of representatives at last.? The reform of introducing the official representatives include voluntary presentations and the introduction of competition mechanism. Fourthly,?China should?reform the distribution system of the representation to allocate the representation according to the population in residence areas. Fifthly, Finally, a unified national election day is necessary to avoid the "second election" phenomenon.?Third, to establish and perfect the association mechanism of the interests.?To?effectively protect the right to vote of peasant workers, China should establish and gradually improve the association mechanism of the electoral interests. Fourth,?to develop the subject consciousness of peasant workers.? We? can? develop and enhance their subject consciousness by optimizing the political culture environment, playing the publicity and education role of the media, as well as creating a fair environment for peasant workers in cities, and so on.