BEIJING -- One delegate to the upcoming 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has been disqualified for serious violation of discipline, Li Dongsheng, spokesman for the congress, said here Sunday.

Three of the 2,217 elected delegates have died of illness, Li said.

The actual number of delegates to attend the national congress is 2,213. Representing more than 70 million CPC members, the delegates are strong in terms of vanguard nature and broadly representative, he said.

He said that new measures have been taken to expand intra-Party democracy in the election of delegates.

Candidates have been recommended more democratically than before with public notification within the electoral units, he added.

Statistics show Party committees at all levels nominated 2,550 candidates for the 2,217 elected delegates, which means the number of candidates is 15 percent higher than the final number of delegates, compared with 10 percent in the election of delegates to the 16th CPC National Congress in 2002.