Seven government departments have been included in a pilot program to select officials with the differential voting mechanism in Beijing, municipal authorities disclosed at the first news conference of the 11th Beijing Municipal Party Congress on Sunday.

In future, the new electoral system will be adopted all over the city, said Liu Yuhui, vice-director of the organization department of the Communist Party of China Beijing Committee.

Compared with the current electoral system — the single-candidate election — the differential voting system, in which the number of candidates exceeds the number elected, is superior in widening the selection channel and increasing the credibility of an election, he said.

The seven pilot departments include government departments in Tongzhou district, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Tourism Development and the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau.

Liu said that Beijing has been strengthening efforts to reform the personnel system, in order to improve the credibility and transparency of selection over recent years.

Beijing has organized three city-wide open selections in the past five years that attracted more than 27,000 applicants, from which 107 director-generals and 424 division directors were selected. Up to 18 director-generals and 2,229 division directors were balloted to work by competition. More than 1,200 officials have been selected by secret ballot since 2009.