Thursday, November 11, 2010

A by-election with Chinese characteristics

There will be a by-election for Pudong No.124 constituency, my constituency, on November 19, 2010.

I will never know this information haven't I been asked by a friend yesterday to find the complain telephone number for the local government's lack of sincerity to address a notorious polluting air emission in midnight.

The government notice was published on Oct, 29th (http://www.tangzhen.gov.cn/index.php?id=3296) but as a permanent resident in this constituency I knew nothing about this by-election until yesterday. So I wrote a letter to the Shanghai People's Congress http://wjapp.spcsc.sh.cn:8090/nis/ldxx/web/ldxx_xf.jsp to express my concerns about my constitutional right. No one comes back to me till now.

This morning I called the election office to request a form to nominate our candidate ( According to the by-election regulation http://www.shanghai.gov.cn/shanghai/node2314/node3124/node3125/node3130/userobject6ai1773.html , article sixteen, ten registered voter can jointly nominate a candidate to run for the seat ) , and was told by the chairman of local people's representatives there is no such thing as nomination by voters in this by election, all the candidates are designated, and today is the deadline to have the final list on the ballot.

Isn't it an outright breach of law?


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