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.% R$ k a U/ @8 [
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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.TVBNOW 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。 _2 `( N9 j* g7 i2 J
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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.5.39.217.76* K4 Y E( J0 q
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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.5.39.217.76& ?7 X7 T1 p" w: b$ K- \; k2 L6 [
& p9 L1 q' t, e5 E"The election committee is being elected to supervise next month's village election," a villager surnamed Chen told AFP by phone.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb" C, H5 w( n: U) w* r$ s0 g
! w* g% G2 U. O; w"Wukan has never held village elections, this will be the first ever democratic election in Wukan."- f, L( o" w* w- r, ]
7 _0 R* ?) g3 ?Zhang 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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* H% l6 v- m9 K7 D; zThe 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.
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They 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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. d! f+ k6 E6 `. i. A5 n" n+ J$ rBut 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.
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The Guangdong provincial government eventually capitulated as their case made headlines, and decided to intervene on behalf of the villagers.5.39.217.76) w. T' o. L/ r5 A
* b8 O; P, {' v$ IFollowing 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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