At 8 a.m. Wednesday, a long queue had formed of hundreds of voters outside a polling booth in the Niujie Street area, a major residential area for Muslims in Beijing.

Feng Guanying, a 73-year-old Muslim who was patiently waiting his turn to vote in the queue, told reporters that he came to vote because it was a golden opportunity for him to exert the democratic right of people. Moreover, of the four final deputy candidates in the electoral ward, three were Muslims. He was satisfied with the ratio and wanted to support Muslim candidates.

Xue Tianli, imam of a mosque in the Niujie Street area who is of the four final deputy candidates, came to the polling booth as just a common voter. "To tell the truth, I really want to be elected as the deputy to the Xuanwu District People's Congress. If so, I welcome any locals who encounter problems to come to me."

An Jiqiang came to vote, together with his four and a half-year-old grandson. "I want to let my grandson learn what voting is and what democracy is by seeing it for himself," said An, while teaching his grandson how to fill in a ballot.

Wang Yuzhen, 76, expressed her support of the imam candidate, as well as the other two Muslim candidates. She believed that the election has turned out to be increasingly important for ordinary people, because nowadays, deputies of district People's Congresses are more willing to seek the interest of the people under their jurisdiction.

The polling booth on the Niujie Street area was just one of the 9,127 polling booths in Beijing's 15 districts and counties. On Dec. 10 nearly 7.2 million Beijingers were expected to vote for deputies of district People's Congresses.

Guo Jinzhong, an official with the Standing Committee of Beijing Municipal People's Congress, said many new characteristics emerged in this year's election.

He said migrant people were allowed for the first time to vote in Beijing, with a certificate of qualified voters issued by the authority of their hometown.

In the Hongqiao area of Xuanwu District alone, thousands of Beijing's 2.5 million migrant people have registered to vote.

Guo also said this year's Beijing's local election rules stipulated that the number of candidates nominated by the political parties or organizations should not exceed 20 percent of the total number, which means 80 percent of the final deputies will be nominated by groups of 10 or more voters.

Beijing's direct election, due to be completed by the end of this year, will mark an end to the nationwide election of deputies to local district and county people's congress, which started in the last half of last year.

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