Smooth, honest election of NPC deputies a priority

A priority for China's top legislature this year is to ensure the smooth and honest election of deputies to the next National People's Congress, the top legislator said on Wednesday.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the 12th NPC Standing Committee, said electing deputies is the foundation of the people's congress system and is of great importance for consolidating the Communist Party of China's position as the governing party.

"We will provide guidance to electoral bodies to help them organize elections well and study the lessons learned from the voting fraud case in Liaoning province," he said while making a work report to about 3,000 national legislators.