GUIYANG — Xi Jinping was elected delegate to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) by a unanimous vote at the 12th CPC Guizhou provincial congress on April 20.

A total of 2,300 delegates to the national congress, slated for the second half of 2017, are being elected by 40 electoral units across the country. The election will be completed by June.

Xi was nominated by the CPC Central Committee as a candidate for delegate to the 19th CPC National Congress and put to vote in the Guizhou electoral unit.

The announcement of Xi’s unanimous election won a burst of long and warm applause at the provincial congress on the morning of April 20.

The unanimous vote of Xi by more than 730 provincial congress delegates represents the shared aspiration of more than 1.7 million CPC members in Guizhou and the wholehearted support of over 40 million residents, the delegates said.

Excited by the result, Liu Fang, a provincial congress delegate and a middle school teacher in the capital city of Guiyang, said, “Though I’m blind, I can sense the concern of Xi, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, for the poor region.”

“We will make efforts to translate the general secretary’s concern and the CPC Central Committee’s poverty eradication policies into happy lives which the people can see and enjoy,” said Yang Bo, another delegate and a village official, adding that he is confident of leading his village out of poverty.

The CPC national congress, which typically convenes once every five years, is of great importance. It hears and deliberates reports of the Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

At the national congress, delegates also elect a new central committee and a new anti-graft body.