2nd National People's Congress

Chinese Congressional election, 1958-59

All 1,226 seats to the National People's Congress
Majority party Minority party   File:Mao Zedong portrait.jpg Leader Mao Zedong Party Communist Minority Alliance United Front United Front Seats before 1048 178 Seats won 1047 179 Seat change 1 1 Percentage 85.40% 16.60% Swing 0.08% 0.08%
Chairman before election Liu Shaoqi Communist Chairman-elect Zhu De Communist

The 2nd National People's Congress (simplified Chinese: 第二届全国人民代表大会; traditional Chinese: 第二屆全國人民代表大會; pinyin: Dì Èr Jiè Quánguó Rénmín Dàibiǎo Dàhuì) was in session from 1959 to 1964. It held four sessions in this period.

Elections to the Congress

Since the succeeding Congress was to be the first to be elected under the 1954 Constitution of the People's Republic of China, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, in February 1959, finished all the preparatory work for selection of deputies, which were voted by representatives of the provincial legislatures and the city legislatures of the then two Direct-administered municipalities of China: Beijing and Shanghai. The elections were held in accordance with the 1953 Electoral Law. The results of the election were a clear Communist victory amongst the parties of the United Front, with the party electing 1,048 representatives, the minor parties 179.

First plenary session

The first session was held in April 1959. The Congress elected the state leaders:

• President of the People's Republic of China: Liu Shaoqi
• Vice President of the People's Republic of China: Soong Ching-ling and Dong Biwu
• Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress: Zhu De
• Premier of the State Council: Zhou Enlai
• President of the Supreme People's Court: Xie Juezai
• Prosecutor-General of the Supreme People's Procuratorate: Zhang Dingcheng

External links

• (in Chinese) Official website of the NPC