WANG Shi has been the secretary of the Liulong Township Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Guizhou Province for four months.

He can still vividly recall his nervousness while awaiting the final vote tally. On January 22, Wang and the other candidate vying to be elected as Party head delivered speeches to 410 of the township's Party members.

In his carefully prepared election speech, Wang introduced himself as an experienced grass-roots cadre who had worked in the township's statistics bureau and held several grass-roots posts, including vice secretary of An'le Village Party Committee, before running for the Liulong Township Party head position.

The 38-year-old former soldier said his military experience helped him develop virtues like finding truth in facts and being down-to-earth. In his speech, he promised to build more roads in the township and bring every household under the coverage of the "mini-reservoir project" to relieve water usage difficulties.

He pledged to vigorously develop industries like traditional Chinese medicine, agriculture and livestock to help locals find jobs over the long term.

"The election speech was important, as my audience was ordinary Party members. The speech should be persuasive and without political jargon. I needed to clearly tell them what I planned to do in my term and the audience would judge and vote accordingly," Wang said.

After the two candidates delivered their speeches, the 410 Party members cast their votes and the results were announced at the scene.

Wang won 301 votes and became the Party head of Liulong Township. "The other candidate, who is the deputy secretary of Baina Village Party Committee, is very capable and has plenty of grass-roots work experience as well. My advantage is that I am more familiar with local economic and social conditions," Wang said.

Still, Wang believes that actions are more important than words. "At the end of the year, Party members will evaluate my performance," he added.

In 2003, The Party launched a trial program for selecting a township Party head through a multi-candidate election in Mulan Township in Sichuan Province. Since then, more CPC committees of townships and urban communities have experimented with this method.

Ouyang Song, deputy head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee announced on the sidelines of the 17th CPC National Congress that, up to 2007, there had been more than 300 village and township Party heads selected through multi-candidate elections.

A fair stage

Since then, more areas have experimented with multi-candidate elections.

On January 3, 2010, a multi-candidate election was held at Wangjiangjing Township in Zhejiang Province to select the township's Party head.

In a live television broadcast, the township's 2,524 Party members cast their votes and elected Chen Tianrong. "It is a fair stage for both candidates," said Chen, when commenting on the multi-candidate election. "I will try my best to fulfill the promises I made in my election speech," he added.

"These elections showcase a democracy in which ordinary Party members' choices are fully respected," said 79-year-old Bu Dexian, a Party member for 53 years that walked a half-hour to cast his vote for the election.

Huang Jiazhong, an official with the Organization Department of Bijie Municipal Party Committee in Guizhou Province said that selecting a township Party head through a multi-candidate election is an effective way of reviving the enthusiasm of ordinary Party members participating in political affairs and that it makes the process more transparent.

"The multi-candidate election also helps bring ordinary Party members' ideas into grass-roots management," Huang added.

"You have to be capable and competitive. If you are lazy or mediocre, you will not be selected," said Wang.

Some political analysts are interested in how the candidates for the multi-candidate election are selected.

In Wang's case, the Dafang County Party Committee announced it would select the Liulong Township Party head through a multi-candidate election in November 2010.

Candidate recommendations can be made personally by the candidate or by a grass-roots Party organization.

There are some criteria a candidate must meet, including being a Party member for at least three years, being under 40 years old, holding a college degree and having grass-roots working experience. The Dafang County Party Committee spread the information to the general public through TV and the Internet.

In December 2010, the committee began examining the qualifications of all recommended candidates and, later, announced the results to the general public.

The committee then held a meeting, which was attended by representatives from the county's people's congress, government, disciplinary watchdog and political advisory body. They selected three preliminary candidates for the post of Liulong Township Party head at the meeting.

Lifeline

The Dafang County Party Committee's organization department assigned staff to the work units of the three preliminary candidates to do all-aspect evaluations.

Finally, another meeting was held by the committee to select two final candidates from the three preliminary candidates.

Gao Xinmin, a professor with the CPC Central Committee's Party School, said it is important to guarantee the final candidates are both outstanding Party members to ensure the quality of the final election and ensure that the Party administrates cadre affairs.

Having been the ruling Party in China for more than six decades, the CPC always believes that intra-Party democracy is the Party's lifeline.

"The multi-candidate election at the township level can help cadres maintain an upward mentality and strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses. And, more importantly, it adds vigor to the Party," added Gao.

(The authors are writers at Xinhua news agency.)