It's election day! I'm late, you say? No, I mean, it's time to vote for your representative to the National People's Congress (Wikipedia). There's banners up in our neighborhood, and I got this e-mail today at work:

 发件人: All_User_Email
 发送时间: 2006年12月12日 10:41
 收件人: Inbound
 主题: 积极投入人大选举12/12/06（今天）
  
 积极投入选举 12/12/06（今天）
 亲爱的同仁，
 公民的选举权和被选举权是公民的一项基本政治权利，它是公民参与管理国家和社会
 事务的必要前提和有效途径。请大家积极参与选举，行使自己神圣的权利。
 拥有上海户籍和上海居住证的员工可以在公司直接参加选举（见饭厅名单公告）
 选民写票的具体要求：
 对候选人赞成的，在候选人姓名上方的小方格内画上一个“O”；
 对候选人反对的，在候选人姓名上方的小方格内画上一个“X”；
 弃权的，在候选人姓名上方的小方格内不要画任何符号。
另选其他人的，在选票的空格内写上所选人员的姓名，并在其姓名上方的小方格内画上一个“O”。
 填写符号要准确，字迹要清楚。
 选区全体选民的过半数参加投票，选举有效。如果第一次投票失败，则要安排第二次选举。
 所以请大家，尽量积极参与选举，行使自己神圣的权利。
 投票日期：2006 年 12 月 12 日（今天）
 投票时间：上午 10：00 至下午 15：00。
 投票地点：OS 4 楼 餐厅
  ADB 2 楼 餐厅
  LQ 服务中心

 若有任何疑问请联络。。。(。。。, 分机。。。）。谢谢！

Most company-wide e-mails are bilingual Chinese-English, but this one was for Chinese employees only. I translate it here:

To: All_User_Email
 Sent:  December 12, 2006, 10:41
 From:  Inbound
 Subject:  Enthusiastically participate in the People's Congress 
   vote on 12/12/06 (today)
  
 Enthusiastically participate in the People's Congress vote on 
   12/12/06 (today)

 Dear colleagues, 
 The right to elect and to be elected is a basic political right of 
 a country's citizens, a requisite and effective way for citizens 
 to participate in the governance of their society and country.  
 We'd like to ask you to please excercise this sacred right by 
 enthusiastically participating in the election.  Employees who 
 are registered Shanghai residents or have residency permits 
 can take part at the company itself (see the list of names posted 
 in the dining hall).  Concrete voting procedure:

 - Write an "O" in the little box next to the names of the 
   candidates you support.
 - Write an "X" in the little box next to the names of the 
   candidates you oppose.
 - If you wish to abstain, do not write anything in the box 
   next to the candidate's name.
 - If you wish to write-in a candidate, write the candidate's 
   name in the space and write an "O" in the box next to it.
 - All marks must be written clearly and correctly. 

 Over half of qualified voters in a district must participate for 
 the vote to be valid.  If the vote fails to be valid, a re-vote 
 will be carried out.  So please, please excercise your sacred 
 right by enthusiastically participating in the election.
 
 Voting date:  December 12, 2006 (today)
 Voting time:  10am-3pm 
 Voting location:  OS 4 dining hall
   ADB 2 dining hall
   LQ service center

 If you have any questions, please contact ... (..., extension ...).  
 Thank you!

So now you're wondering how the campaign has been shaping up. Plenty of mud-slinging? Harmonious as president Hu would like it? Maybe I've been looking in all the wrong places, but I have seen no evidence of campaigning at all. I didn't even realize that the election was coming until I saw the banner go up on the fence below our apartment yesterday. Anybody else?