A Comparative Study On The Process Of Election Between Village Committees In Mainland China And Hong Kong District Council

Since the British Hong Kong Government implemented the policy of partial direct election in the 1980s, the number of elected members of the District council of Hong Kong has been increasing. The proportion of the number of elected members and that of appointed members has been adjusted to 4:1 from the previous 1:1, moreover, it is planned that all the members of District Council become elected by 2016. In view of the existing conditions, the election of elected members is basically operated in a smooth way, but still has to improve in some way. Democracy of basic level in Chinese villages has developed rapidly since the Sixth NPC Standing Committee issued "Law of Organization of Villager Committee of the PRC (Trial)" in 1987, which prescribes that village committees be directly elected by the villages. However, there exist many problems; for example, election in some places is just being symbolic. This thesis is going to take Village Committees in mainland China and the District council of Hong Kong as research objects, and adopt methods of documents and interview. The focus of this thesis is to explore the differences and similarities of Village Committees in mainland China and the District council of Hong Kong, as well as to seek merits from the both on the basis of sorting out their election processes.Through analysis and comparison, we can find that during the whole process of election, both Village Committees in mainland China and the District council of Hong Kong have their own merits, and they can learn from each other. With regard to the detailed process of election, Village Committees in mainland China can learn from the District council of Hong Kong in terms of voter registration and candidate publicity etc, while the District council of Hong Kong can learn from Village Committees in mainland China to gradually expand the circle of direct election, to adopt mass election, competitive election, specially-designated secretive rooms for marking ballots, mobile ballot box etc, in order to guarantee that the election is more democratic and more convenient. Village Committees in mainland China can also learn from the District council of Hong Kong in terms of provisions of election, organizing and supervising agencies of election as well as the role of parties in election. It can still learn to set up independent organizing and supervising agencies of election, to unify and perfect provisions of election in village committees, and also to make those provisions maneuverable in order to standardize election, last but least, to separate the Party from the government and reduce the Party's control on election.