BEIJING - Villagers in China whose rebellion against local officials last year grabbed the headlines kicked off a key process on Wednesday that will see them hold their first-ever open, democratic elections.
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Residents in Wukan in the wealthy southern province of Guangdong won rare concessions after they faced off with authorities for more than a week in December in a row over land and graft, including pledges to hold free village polls.* N+ p6 }# C( E& K C
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China - a one-party state where top leaders are not elected by the people - nevertheless allows villagers across the country to vote for a committee to represent them.
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But Wukan residents said their leaders had never before allowed these polls to go ahead in an open fashion, and instead selected members of the village committee behind closed doors.
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But on Wednesday they were due to openly select an independent election committee that would supervise their first democratic village poll due next month.
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0 f# B% Z2 W; P) U0 K5.39.217.76"The election committee is being elected to supervise next month's village election," a villager surnamed Chen told AFP by phone.
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W6 S: m" i) h. C. ITVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。"Wukan has never held village elections, this will be the first ever democratic election in Wukan."
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1 y+ O: V# o, S+ v* j5.39.217.76Zhang Jianxing, a villager close to the local government, added Wednesday's vote was "part of the process to hold open, transparent and fair elections."
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& ]5 o" M, Q4 a% s$ D+ k% ]公仔箱論壇The election committee will be made up of 11 villagers who will not be allowed to run for next month's election, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
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The concessions won by Wukan residents are seen as a rare victory for protesters in authoritarian China., w# \" N, @8 e$ \# E4 d# f; |/ v
0 C. g! t2 X: \$ x8 ]2 utvb now,tvbnow,bttvbThey had protested for months in autumn last year against their allegedly corrupt leaders, whom they accused of abusing their power to profit from land in the village.
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: P" J& v! _1 i/ wtvb now,tvbnow,bttvbBut it was not until detained community leader Xue Jinbo died in police custody in December after allegedly being beaten that their anger boiled over, prompting a tense, drawn-out stand-off with police and officials.5 }3 \. s) m# G* h5 P) F" f, r
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The Guangdong provincial government eventually capitulated as their case made headlines, and decided to intervene on behalf of the villagers.
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) e3 }9 G w* H7 ~& f: Y v公仔箱論壇Following investigations into corruption, the government conceded that villagers' grievances were reasonable and that closed elections for village leaders last year were invalid. |
發表於 2012-2-2 08:35 AM
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