The Election Law on the National People’s Congress and Local People’s Congress was promulgated in 1979 and amended in 1982, 1986, 1995, 2004, 2010, 2015 and 2020 respectively. The latest revision entered into force on October 17, 2020.

There are 60 articles in total.

The key points are as follow:

1.Deputies to the National People’s Congress and to the People’s Congresses of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities divided into districts, and autonomous prefectures shall be elected by the people’s congresses at the next lower level.(Article 3)

2.Deputies to the people’s congresses of cities not divided into districts, municipal districts, counties, autonomous counties, townships, nationality townships, and towns shall be elected directly by their constituencies. (Article 3)

3.All citizens of the People’s Republic of China who have reached the age of 18 shall have the right to vote and stand for election. (Article 4)

4.Each voter shall have the right to vote only once in an election. (Article 5)

5.The number of deputies to the National People’s Congress shall not exceed 3,000. (Article 16)