Promoting citizens' rights in the election of People's Council deputies at all levels

(Baonghean) - Looking back at the results of the election of People's Council deputies at all levels for the 2011-2016 term, it can be seen that citizens in the province are highly aware of their rights and obligations, so they actively participated from the stage of introducing candidates to the stage of voting.

In the election of People's Council deputies at all levels for the 2011-2016 term, Nghe An province had 25 constituencies for provincial People's Council deputies; 225 constituencies for district People's Council deputies with 3,952 polling stations. The voter turnout rate reached 98.3%, with some units having a voter turnout rate of 100%. The election atmosphere was exciting, and the election day truly became a political festival for voters in the province.

The introduction of candidates and self-nominations is carried out seriously on the basis of structure, standards, and number of delegates through the Consultation Conference, from which the selection is made to officially select candidates for People's Council delegates. During that process, local citizens actively participated in the Voters' Conferences to contribute opinions, comments, and express their trust in candidates for People's Council delegates at all levels. Some voters in the province requested, verified, and clarified a number of cases related to candidates for People's Council delegates such as asset declaration, the performance of candidates' work, or candidates violating population and family planning policies... All cases were verified, clarified, and responded to by competent authorities. As a result, the election elected 85 provincial People's Council delegates (of which: 15 were female, accounting for 17.6%; 14 were ethnic minorities, accounting for 16.5%; 3 were young, accounting for 3.5%); 783 district-level People's Council delegates (of which: 219 were female, accounting for 28%; 148 were ethnic minorities, accounting for 18.9%; 131 were young, accounting for 16.73%; 2 units had to hold additional elections); 12,441 commune-level People's Council delegates (of which: 2,841 were female, accounting for 23.01%; 2,510 were ethnic minorities, accounting for 20.33%; 2,610 were young, accounting for 21.14%; 91 units had to hold additional elections; 3 units had to hold re-elections).

The Legal Committee of the Provincial People's Council supervises the issuance of Land Use Right Certificates at the Provincial Land Use Right Registration Center. Photo: Mai Hoa

However, besides the above results, the election revealed some limitations, which are:

Firstly, the work of introducing candidates for the People's Council has not received due attention in some places. Some agencies, organizations and units did not introduce candidates or introduced candidates but did not have enough candidates as allocated (Nghe An Handicraft Joint Stock Company and Thanh Thanh Dat Joint Stock Company asked not to introduce candidates because they did not have time to participate; the College of Economics and Technology, the People's Committee of Kim Son Commune, Que Phong District were allocated 2 candidates but could only introduce 1). Some agencies, units and organizations did not do a good job of introducing candidates, introducing unqualified candidates, losing prestige, so some electoral units had scattered votes, the percentage of votes of some elected delegates was low; some electoral units lacked delegates (75 electoral units elected delegates at the commune level lacked delegates). Some localities lacked candidates for People's Council delegates after the third round of the consultation conference.

Second, the number of people who self-nominated for election to People's Councils at all levels was low. After three consultation conferences, no qualified candidates were selected to run for election to People's Councils at the provincial and district levels. The number of people who self-nominated for election to People's Councils at the commune level was only 88 out of 20,349 candidates (0.43%). Some self-nominated candidates had low citizen trust rates, with some even achieving only 26.6%.

Third, some candidates do not contact voters fully, in some cases they do not participate in election campaigns; some candidates prepare their action plan if elected in a cursory and general manner.

Fourth, in some places, citizens are not fully aware of their rights and obligations in the election, so the voter turnout rate is low (For example: Election Team No. 11 of Yen Na commune in the Ban Ve Hydropower reservoir area only had 4/111 voters go to the polls, reaching a rate of 3.6%); in particular, there were 3 commune People's Council election units that had to re-organize elections due to incidents that had occurred but were not resolved in a timely manner, affecting the election results.

Fifth, there is still the situation of proxy voting (in a house with many voters, one person represents the whole family to vote); voting just to get it over with (not caring about the candidate you choose or do not choose) or choosing based on emotions.

On that basis, we recommend a number of issues to improve the law and mechanism to ensure the implementation of citizens' rights to vote and run for election at the local level:

1. Continue to raise citizens' awareness of the right to vote and the right to run for election so that citizens clearly understand the meaning and purpose of participating in elections and running for local state power agencies, which is the people's participation in exercising state power.

2. Expand the range of voters' choices by increasing the number of candidates for a constituency. Article 42 of the Law on Election of People's Council Deputies stipulates: "The number of candidates for People's Council Deputies in constituencies must be at least 2 more than the number of elected representatives in that constituency" but in reality in Nghe An, all constituencies have a minimum surplus of 2 people. The close ratio between elected representatives and candidates narrows the voters' choice, so it will be very difficult to choose truly worthy representatives.

3. Innovate the selection and introduction of candidates for People's Council deputies at all levels in a way that avoids creating too large a gap between one candidate and another. In reality, there are candidates who consider themselves or perceive themselves as just "green soldiers" for other candidates, so their election campaigns are only formal and lack initiative. The "lifeless" election campaigns of candidates are difficult to create a "campaign atmosphere", so voters will not feel the "hot" atmosphere of the election. On the other hand, the small participation of self-nominated candidates (for whatever reason) compared to those introduced by agencies and organizations in the election list makes the election seem not really open. Therefore, there should be specific and clear regulations on the order and procedures for self-nomination to create conditions for many people who meet the conditions of candidates to participate in self-nomination.

4. More specific regulations on the standards for People's Council deputies at all levels; clarify the provisions in Clause 3, Article 3 of the current Law "having qualifications and capacity to perform the duties of deputies" to create conditions for citizens to self-assess and evaluate their own abilities when deciding to run for deputies or being nominated by agencies and organizations. On the other hand, regulations and application of regulations on delegate standards and the structure of deputies must ensure harmony between the requirements on delegate standards and the requirements on the structure and composition of deputies. To ensure the quality of deputies, it is necessary to prioritize the standards of deputies first and then consider the requirements on ensuring the structure and composition later. Only then, when elected by voters, deputies can perform their duties well and not disappoint the expectations of voters.

5. Adjust to shorten and make more substantial the second consultation step on the preparation of the preliminary list of candidates. The adjustment will reduce some formal steps in the consultation work, while increasing the time for the next steps of the consultation work to be more reasonable while still maintaining the role of the Fatherland Front.

6. Improve the operational capacity of People's Councils at all levels, truly empower People's Councils to truly be state power agencies, representing the will, aspirations and mastery of the people, deciding important local issues. At the same time, there should be a mechanism to create conditions for People's Council delegates to perform their representative role in deciding important local issues. When the activities of People's Councils are no longer formal, when the role of People's Council delegates is respected and affirmed, people will maximize their mastery through the right to vote and the right to run for People's Council delegates at all levels.

An Chung - Thu Nguyen