China's national legislature gives 31 seats to migrant workers

BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The 12th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, has given 31 seats to migrant workers, a drastic rise from three in the 11th NPC, a spokeswoman said Monday.

Compared with the 11th NPC, deputies from the groups of industrial workers and farmers have risen to 155, about 5 percentage points higher, Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the first session of the 12th NPC, said at a news conference in Beijing.

She said 225 deputies are from the country's non-public economic sector.

Among 2,987 NPC deputies in total, the number of woman deputies rises to 699, 62 more or 2 percentage points up from the 11th NPC, Fu said.

China amended its Electoral Law in 2010, adopting the principle that each deputy represents the same number of urban or rural residents.