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Absence costs deputies membership
CHANGCHUN: Five deputies of the standing committee of the People's Congress of Hunchun, Northeast China's Jilin Province, have been stripped of their people's congress membership because of poor attendance. Sources with the committee confirmed yesterday that the group are no longer members because they failed to attend congress meetings. They were expelled late last month. One unnamed deputy told China Daily some speeches at the meetings last for two whole hours. He said the new governor of Jilin Province is keen to shorten the time of the meetings. However, it is too late for the sacked five. It is the first time in the province that the local legislature has gotten rid of members. "The five deputies were absent from the annual congress conference twice, without any reason, and did not shoulder their responsibility of representing the interests of the people. They do not have the requisite qualifications to be a people's congress member," said Yu Yunfeng, a senior official with the committee. In their three-year tenure starting in 2002, they only attended the 2002 annual conference. According to the official, there are 163 deputies in the city's People's Congress. Some deputies have skipped meetings without informing the committee. Deputies who fail to attend the annual conference twice without a reason should be deprived of his or her membership according to the law. However, in reality, it never works out that way, giving rise to increasing absentee rates of people's congress deputies at the grass-roots level. "The Standing Committee of the Hunchun People's Congress decided to make an
example of the five deputies. The decision produced wide repercussions not only
in Hunchun, but also in Changchun and other cities of Jilin Province," a deputy
of the committee said. |
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