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.6 J4 K4 [7 f' {% X& u! A
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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.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb- U& _1 L$ U6 f# S! m
' w& A# T1 F* d) m5 atvb now,tvbnow,bttvbChina - 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.公仔箱論壇/ O t' X% u& @: l, N$ u& ]9 E
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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.5.39.217.769 X9 Z# `: B' O' k) I5 {; x
. q2 S! x6 {) r t# w, z+ Q7 L' ^( l6 X3 Y公仔箱論壇"The election committee is being elected to supervise next month's village election," a villager surnamed Chen told AFP by phone.: D& D m# n7 a
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"Wukan has never held village elections, this will be the first ever democratic election in Wukan."
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8 a) e p7 [/ ~1 wZhang Jianxing, a villager close to the local government, added Wednesday's vote was "part of the process to hold open, transparent and fair elections."1 T1 q7 ~9 w* q- z! ^( R
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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.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb: Q2 y5 D# U, m7 Y; }; z# _
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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.; ~2 s' j+ Z r4 L2 D8 _
2 v, q4 f# i' [8 R. UTVBNOW 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。But 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.公仔箱論壇1 x" s. ]5 n X- [
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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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