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NPC: No Legal Grounds for Independent Candidates

According to the official China Central Television, by the end of 2012, 2 millions seats in the grassroots versions of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber stamp legislature, will be chosen by 900 million voters in more than 2,000 counties and over 30,000 villages. 

Recently a handful of citizens decided to run in local elections as self-proclaimed independent candidates. However an official at the Legislative Committee of the NPC asserted that the so-called “independent candidates” have no legal grounds. “Candidates at counties and villages can only be nominated by various political parties, people’s groups, and voters via legal procedures, and then determined as ‘official deputy candidates’ after discussions, negotiations, or pre-elections. There are no so-called ‘independent candidates,’ and there are no legal grounds for ‘independent candidates.’"
 
Source: CNTV, June 8, 2011
http://news.cntv.cn/program/xwlb/20110608/112225.shtml