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.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。! B3 K6 q1 R9 t x( P' }5 S/ R4 |
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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.
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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.
5 d0 _! U0 m. g8 oTVBNOW 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。
1 f# M8 v7 v. Z! S5.39.217.76But 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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"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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% |: r7 p& t$ v! k3 _4 c5 |1 H o( e公仔箱論壇"Wukan has never held village elections, this will be the first ever democratic election in Wukan."
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7 ~' ~+ O! c3 }: ?4 FZhang 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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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.公仔箱論壇$ [! [$ t6 A' N: Q# o5 k
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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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; K: V2 k8 Y- {5 `5 z: H* ETVBNOW 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。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.8 ^8 B! c1 z( u/ ?( p
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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.公仔箱論壇! n+ y$ s1 W0 k( x! Y, E) g
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The Guangdong provincial government eventually capitulated as their case made headlines, and decided to intervene on behalf of the villagers.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb. ~) X- A I( g+ {1 L, [
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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. |