BEIJING -- The National People's Congress (NPC), the top legislature, on Saturday deliberated a draft amendment to the Organic Law of the Local People's Congresses and Local People's Governments.

The draft amendment was submitted for its third reading to the fifth session of the 13th NPC. Wang Chen, vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, delivered an explanatory speech on the draft at the opening meeting of the session.

Adopted in 1979, the law will go through its sixth amendment, in which a people-centered philosophy of development and whole-process people's democracy are highlighted.

As a basic law stipulating the organization and operation of local legislatures and governments, it serves as an important institutional guarantee for local state organs of power and administrative organs to exercise their powers and perform their duties, Wang said.

When elaborating on the necessity of amending the law, Wang said that it is crucial to ensure law-based and effective governance under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

It is also a major step to develop whole-process people's democracy and ensure it is the people who run the country, Wang noted.

To modernize China's system and capacity for governance entails amending the law, he added.