Single-candidate election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A single-candidate election refers to an election in which the number of candidates equals the number of positions to be filled. In some countries, single-candidate elections are used partially or entirely. In single-candidate elections, voters' power is limited to deciding whether to approve a candidate; therefore, compared to differential elections, voters have less power, their role being primarily limited to confirming the candidate.
China
In February 1953, the Election Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses of the People's Republic of China was promulgated. Although the law did not explicitly stipulate the principle of single-candidate elections, the Directive of the Central Election Committee on Grassroots Election Work, which was promulgated on 3 April 1953, pointed out that “the number of candidates for delegates to the election meeting proposed by the election committee should generally be equal to the number of delegates elected, that is, the number of delegates to be elected in this electoral area should be the same as the number of delegates to be nominated”.[1]
Although the Organization Law of the People's Congresses and Local People's Governments at All Levels of the People's Republic of China was promulgated in 1979, Article 16 of which stipulates that all local governments at all levels should conduct differential elections, in practice today, differential elections are only implemented at the grassroots level and among elected representatives and members. Leaders of governments at all levels are still elected by single-candidate elections, and enterprises and institutions are still appointed.[2]
In the past, the elections within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were generally conducted using an single-candidate election system. In 1980, the fifth plenary session of the 11th Central Committee adopted the Several Guidelines on Political Life within the CCP, which stipulated that, except for units with a small number of party members, the elections within the party were generally conducted using a differential election method to generate candidates for preliminary election, followed by a formal election, or a differential election.[3] However, in practice, the scope and level of differential elections within the CCP were small, the differential margin was small, and the competition in the elections was not strong.[4]
The current electoral system of China is a combination of differential elections and single-candidate elections.[5] In the context of the People's Republic of China, the trend toward differential elections towards democratic politics is to promote the scientific, standardized and institutionalized nature of differential elections. At present, the official development direction is to regulate differential nomination and differential elections in party elections to reflect the will of the voters.[6]
Under the CCP's political ideology of party leadership, the differential system is regarded as an important milestone in election history and is necessary to break out of the framework of single-candidate elections.[7]
Election by equal number of candidates
In practice, single-candidate elections are used in two different ways:[8]
- A one-time, single-candidate election. This means that without a preliminary election, a list of candidates equal to the number of positions to be filled is submitted directly to the meeting for voters to choose from during the election.
- After the preliminary election, an equal number of candidates are selected. In order to ensure the success of the election, a preliminary election is usually arranged within a certain scope before the formal election at the conference. The preliminary election adopts the form of differential election. After the preliminary election, the formal candidates with an equal number of seats to be elected are determined according to the results of the preliminary election and submitted to the conference for formal election.
Voting in an election with equal numbers
In the People's Republic of China, those currently subject to single-candidate elections mainly include the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, members of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries of the local committees and discipline inspection commissions at all levels, the chairman, Vice Chairmen, and Secretary-General of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the President and Vice President of China, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission, the President of the Supreme People's Court, and the Procurator-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.[9][10] In addition, in practice, the secretaries and deputy secretaries of the grassroots organizations of the CCP, and the heads of local people's congresses, as well as other principal leaders, are generally subject to single-candidate elections.[11]
Analysis
Zou Xueping and others believe that although "single-candidate election" has played a positive role in the construction of democracy and the rule of law in the People's Republic of China, differential election has greater and irreplaceable advantages. Single-candidate election is prone to becoming a formality, reducing or dampening the enthusiasm of voters or representatives to participate in politics, weakening the public servant consciousness, and fostering the abnormal mentality of elected officials who are only responsible to their superiors.[12] Tang Xiaoyang believes that the terms “equal number” and “election” in the term “equal number election” are contradictory concepts. If it is “election”, it cannot be “equal number”, and if it is “equal number”, it is not “election”.[13]
Yuan Gang and others believe that the single-candidate election solves the problem of the legitimacy of power in terms of legal theory, which is conducive to the overall control of the CCP over the political life of the People's Republic of China.[14] Others believe that because there is no alternative plan, the single-candidate election does not have the principle of survival of the fittest. In the process of single-candidate election, the personal will of the leader usually plays a decisive role.[15] Voters have no choice and the participation of voters has almost no impact on the election results.[14]
Other countries
In socialist countries such as Vietnam and Cuba, single-candidate elections are now practiced. However, unlike China, the members or representatives of the National Assembly of Vietnam and Cuba are elected directly through single-candidate elections, while the representatives of the National People's Congress of China are elected indirectly.[citation needed]
During the National Assembly period of the Republic of China, from 1960 to 1990, the ruling Kuomintang nominated only one presidential candidate in the presidential elections.[16] The presidential elections for Chiang Kai-shek (since 1960), Chiang Ching-kuo, and Lee Teng-hui during their first terms were all single-candidate elections.[17]