Chongqing may pilot town-hall-style meetings: official

Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality is expected to put on trial a town-hall-style meeting between its congress candidates and local constituents, said a local official Sunday, as the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, started to work on its electoral reform.

The candidates should introduce themselves and answer questions from local voters, said NPC deputy Chen Guangguo, also the Director of Chongqing Municipal People's Congress' Standing Committee, local daily Chongqing Evening News reported Monday.

On Monday the NPC started discussion on a draft amendment to the Electoral Law, which, if passed, will grant equal electoral rights to urban and rural citizens, which experts believe is major democratic progress.