Hu Jintao was elected president of the People's Republic of China at the fifth plenary meeting of the first session of the 10th National People's Congress in Beijing Saturday morning.

Showing up at the plenary meeting were 2,951 NPC deputies.

The plenary session also elected Zeng Qinghong vice-president of the People's Republic of China, Wu Bangguo, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, and Jiang Zemin chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China.

Elected to the posts of vice-chairmanship of the NPC Standing Committee were Wang Zhaoguo, Li Tieying, Ismail Amat, He Luli ( female), Ding Shisun, Cheng Siwei, Xu Jialu, Jiang Zhenghua, Gu Xiulian (female), Raidi, Sheng Huaren, Lu Yongxiang, Uyunqimg ( female), Han Qide and Fu Tieshan. The post of secretary-general of the NPC Standing Committee went to Sheng Huaren (concurrent).

Also elected were 159 members of the 10th NPC Standing Committee.

Executive Chairman Wang Zhaoguo of the presidium of the NPC session declared the meeting open at nine o'clock.

The meeting began with a vote for a list of 36 scrutineers with Zhang Pingying and Hu Yougui as the scrutineers-general before the election began.

According to the rules of election and appointment adopted at the NPC session, the election of chairman and vice-chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee, president and vice-president of the People 's Republic of China (PRC), and chairman of the Central Military Commission of the PRC followed the single-candidate system, that is, they were elected from the equal number of candidates; the election of NPC Standing Committee members followed the differential voting system, with 159 members to be voted in from 167 candidates.