BEIJING - Twenty-five of 32 Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have completed elections for new lawmakers in county and township legislatures, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

China started such elections nationwide in the first half of last year,as current office terms were approaching expiration.

This year, six provinces and municipalities, including Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Sichuan, were added to the 25 provincial administrative regions that concluded elections, according to the statement.

The Electoral Law has been fully implemented in local legislature elections and spurred wide participation, according to the statement.

It said the percentage of women and grassroots people like workers and farmers elected as deputies has risen in those provinces, while the percentage of Party cadres has decreased.

In Sichuan, women made up 24 percent of the total elected deputies, and farmers and workers took 30.3 percent. Both groups saw an apparent increase from previous elections, said the statement.

Under last year's amendment to the Electoral Law, elections for lawmakers at the county and township levels granted rural and urban citizens equal representation in legislative bodies for the first time.

The previous electoral law stipulated that each rural deputy represented a population four times that of an urban deputy.

The migrant population's right to vote and to be elected has also been ensured by improved service and loosened restrictions regarding residence registrations, or "hukou," said the statement.

Beijing granted voting rights to those able to provide valid documents from election authorities in their originally-registered place of residence.

More than 1.8 million migrants in Zhejiang voted in local elections, and 400 of them were elected into local legislatures, the statement said.

Elections of lawmakers at county and township legislatures across the country will be completed before the end of 2012, said the statement.