A CARING SOUL: Chen Fenglian (left), Director of Ciyou Community in Xining City, northwest China's Qinghai Province, visits 80-year-old Ma Yumei, who lives alone in the community (WANG BO)	A MASTER TECHNICIAN: Song Dianchen, an award-winning lathe operator from north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is a national-level model worker (ZHAO TINGTING)

Both Chen and Bai believe that the right to vote is key for Party members, which was better materialized in multi-candidate elections. Compared with single-candidate elections, multi-candidate elections are competitive, where winners often really care about intra-Party affairs and can more effectively express their opinions on political issues. They believe that the introduction of more competitive elections for national congress delegates is out of respect for public opinion and helps to promote intra-Party democracy.

Wang Changjiang, a professor at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, said the introduction of the multi-candidate survey on the preliminary delegate candidates is a positive change. "More competitive election campaigns must be introduced," he said, adding that regulations need to be drafted to make these kinds of elections regular.

The election process was "open and transparent," with each Party member having access to election information, said Deng Shengming, a spokesman for the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee. He also revealed that up to 98 percent of Party members participated in the election.

CPC members participated in and supervised the election through party member meetings, published notices and text messages sent to their cell phones, Deng said, adding that the media have covered the entire process.

The CPC Central Committee imposed strict discipline on the election to ensure a sound and healthy process and forbid bribery and pulling strings to draw votes.

Discipline agencies, organization departments as well as the electoral units closely monitored the process of the election. The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee sent inspectors to supervise and check the elections at the local level.

Some local Party committees had, for the first time, publicized delegate candidates' personal information via the mass media, in a bid to mobilize the participation of and solicit feedback from Party members. In previous elections, such a list was only circulated among those in the Party.

Chen said that such efforts brought the election process under public supervision.

According to a survey by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, about 97 percent of the Party members were satisfied with the election, said Wang, the department's deputy head.

"The CPC will continue its efforts to promote intra-Party democracy by improving the Party congress system and promoting intra-Party elections and supervision," Wang said.

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