NEW ERA IN CHINA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26625, 22 November 1947, Page 7

NEW ERA IN CHINA

FIRST DEMOCRATIC ELECTION ONE PARTY SYSTEM ENDED Rec. 10 p.m. NANKING, Nov. 21. Madame Chiang Kai-shek will cast her first vote to-day when all women over 21 will go to the polls in China’s first democratic elections. During the next three days more than 160,000,000 persons are expected to cast their votes, but even this estimate is reported by high officials in Nanking to be 100,000,000 below the figures of those eligible to vote. Roughly one-quarter of China’s population of 450,000,000 will be prevented from voting because of the civil war, while China’s 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 overseas Chinese in Siam, Hongkong, che Netherlands East Indies, the Philippines, and the United States will be unable to record their votes for 3024 representatives for the National Assembly. The Kuomintang—the National Party—with 1758 candidates, has virtually no opposition. The elections may be regarded as the beginning of a new era in China’s constitutional history. The 3024 representatives will be charged with the task of electing the President of the Republic of China, and enforcing the new Constitution drawn up last year, Generalissimo Chiang. Kai-shek is expected to be re-elected President. These elections mark the end of the one-party system, and herald democratic and free elections in line with the goal set by the founder of the Republic, Sun Yat-sen, in giving China constitutional democracy. China's new Constitution gives the right to vote to any mentally fit Chinese citizen over 21 who has not been convicted of treason, opium smoking, or corruption. There is no literacy requirement.