NPC session ends, endorses Electoral Law amendment

BEIJING - The National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, ended its annual session Sunday morning after endorsing an amendment to the Electoral Law and the government work report, among others.

The closing meeting was presided over by Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, with the presence of President Hu Jintao and other top leaders.

The government work report by Premier Wen Jiabao that sets an 8-percent economic growth target for 2010 won 2,836 votes from the 2,909 NPC deputies at the closing meeting.

While delivering a closing speech, top legislator Wu Bangguo said lawmakers at this session offered good suggestions and proposals on accelerating the transformation of the economic growth pattern, a task on the top agenda of the government this year.

The amendment to the Electoral Law, which grants equal representation in legislative bodies to rural and urban people, is of great significance to the improvement of the people's congress system and the development of the socialist democracy, as it could better demonstrate equality among people, regions and ethnic groups.

Wu said the NPC deputies have submitted 506 motions to the session, and the presidium has handed them to NPC special committees for deliberation.

He asked all the special committees to earnestly handle these motions and let them play an important role in legislative work.

The session also has received more than 7,400 proposals from lawmakers.
At the closing meeting, the legislators also adopted resolutions on the national development plan, budgets, and the work reports of the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

According to the approved budget, China plans to increase its defense budget by 7.5 percent in 2010, only about half of last year's planned growth of 14.9 percent, to 519.082 billion yuan (about $76.3 billion).

The closing meeting also approved the resignation of NPC Standing Committee member Li Dongsheng, who will work for the government, as the law does not allow government officials to hold the position.

The annual session of the national legislature opened on March 5.