China's landmark 16th Party Congress yesterday cast its first votes on what is set to be a major clear-out of the aging leaders who have ruled the country for more than a decade, delegates said.
The vote at the 16th Party Congress began a process that will, delegates told reporters, see virtually all the party's top bosses, including President Jiang Zemin (江澤民), begin stepping down from power.
Representatives from Guangdong Province, who had been holding closed-door talks at a hotel in downtown Beijing, said initial voting was beginning for candidates for the party's elite Central Committee.
"We have been having preliminary elections" for the Central Committee, a delegate said, declining to give his name.
"We have got no results yet," another said.
The delegate confirmed what a colleague told reporters on Monday night: six of China's top seven leaders are not on the candidates' list for the Central Committee, a few-hundred-strong body to which all senior leaders must belong.
Although the whole process remains officially secret, this appears to show clearly the leaders, including Premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) and parliamentary head Li Peng (李鵬) as well as Jiang, will retire.
"Yes, it's true, they are all stepping down. All except Hu Jintao (
"It is because they are all too old and have to retire," he added.
Meetings appeared to break up in the early evening, with streams of delegates seen leaving various hotels in cars.
In practical terms, yesterday's voting will have little bearing on what is already an entirely undemocratic process.
According to experts, such preliminary polls are merely used by top leaders to ensure the 2,000-plus delegates are voting as they are meant to, so as to avoid later upsets.
Additionally, there are only a handful more candidates than seats, making any choice extremely limited.
The Central Committee officially elects the 20-member or so Politburo, which in turn is supposed to vote in the elite Politburo Standing Committee.
However China-watchers say all the top-level leadership maneuvers have been worked out in advance by a tiny group of leaders, with every other change working downwards from this.
It is widely expected that after giving up their party posts, the leaders would step down from state jobs in March next year.
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