Lawmakers revamped a decades-old method of writing ballots yesterday to ensure democracy in voting procedures when electing state leaders.

　　The new method requires all lawmakers to write on the ballots - no matter if they vote pro, con or choose to abstain. The change will apply when the top legislature votes to elect the chairman of the State Central Military Commission on Sunday.

　　"Though the revision only involves a trivial detail, it is of vital importance to ensure every lawmaker can fully exercise his rights without any outside influence or interference," commented Wang Quanjie, a deputy to the 10th National People's Congress that is now in its annual session in Beijing.

　　At a full meeting convened in the Great Hall of the People yesterday morning, nearly 3,000 NPC deputies decided to revoke the old balloting method, which provided that only those who were to abstain or vote against candidates need to write on the ballot.

　　"The old method spares the trouble of ballot-writing for those who vote in favor of the candidate, which helps shorten the voting time," Wang said. "But at the same time it can also reveal anyone who doesn't support the candidate, thus putting them under immense pressure."

　　Some national lawmakers who also serve in local legislatures said they had encountered several cases in which some "incompetent and unpopular" candidates were elected due to "loopholes in voting procedures."

　　A lawmaker from northeastern Heilongjiang Province agrees with the change. "Once you pick up the pen and write your ballot, everyone present knows you are either abstaining or opposing," he said. "This has virtually turned the 'secret ballot' into an 'open ballot' and has kept deputies from expressing their will freely and truthfully."

　　Heilongjiang laid bare a string of political scandals which led to the downfall of several provincial-level officials. Some of the ousted officials were elected to posts despite "bad reputations" among the local deputies "largely owing to the old ballot-writing method."

　　In another extreme case, lawmakers in one unnamed place were given "unsharp pencils" to "make sure no one cast a vote of opposition or abstention," a different NPC deputy said.

　　"The new method adopted by the top national legislature will encourage local legislatures to follow suit, thus further enhancing democracy nationwide," the deputy said.

　　According to the new method, every ballot sheet will have three oval-shape blanks on it, representing "pro," "con" and "abstention" respectively. Each lawmaker must fill in one of the corresponding blanks with an ink pen.

　　Though the NPC introduced an advanced electronic voting system years before, lawmakers still need to cast traditional paper ballots on major issues.

　　(Xinhua)