Village elections have been upheld by the Chinese government as an example of the growing grassroots democracy in the countryside. However, while many villagers have enthusiastically embraced their new democratic rights, many others are discovering that their vote, if not exactly worthless, is of limited value.

In January 2007, CLB Director Han Dongfang talked to a group of villagers from Wudangshan in the central province of Hubei about the elections to their municipal people's congress in October 2006. Wudangshan is a popular tourist destination in China, a site of outstanding natural beauty and a sacred Taoist mountain but the region's electoral practices are seemingly not so attractive. The villagers reported serious electoral irregularities, including village leaders voting several times, instructing villagers how to vote, monitoring the voting and failing to declare the result.

Wang Dayou, a resident of Mozhenjin village in Wudangshan, told Han Dongfang exactly what happened on October 26, 2006 when the villagers came together to elect their deputy to the Danjiangkou municipal people's congress.

"Those local leaders called us villagers together for a meeting and told us to vote for Wang Guangcai and not to vote for (the incumbent) Wang Fuguo. Then at the end of the election some of them voted three or four times."

Asked what reasons the local leaders gave for manipulating the vote, Wang Dayou said leaders suggested that the incumbent had been a deputy for many years, had made some money and as such had become more of a town than a country person. It was time to elect someone from the countryside.

"Our village secretary said it like this; we want to elect this peasant not the guy in the job." Wang explained that neither of the two candidates were local residents but were in fact the secretaries of neighbouring villages. Furthermore, the incumbent, Wang Fuguo, was generally well liked by the villagers. "For more than 20 years, he's helped us shake off poverty and gain some wealth. He’s been a pretty good deputy… I think Wang Fuguo is very diligent, he can spur the masses on to get rich. Wang Guangcai, I really don't know that well."

Mozhenjin was one of six villages in the electoral district who voted that day. It appears that a similar attempt to manipulate the result occurred in all six villages. And according to Wang Dayou, the secretary of nearby Doufugu village was incensed at the interference from above. "After the election, he flew into a thunderous rage. Said the election should not be arranged in this way."

Asked who it was pulling the strings in the election, Wang said, "I'm not too clear about that but some people say it was the sub-district office but I really don't know. All I know is what they told us at the meeting, we don't know where the decision was made."

Zhang Tianjiang, a resident of Taizipo village, confirmed a similar pattern of electoral abuse on October 26. When the more than 300 electors gathered to cast their votes for the two candidates they were told by their leaders to "vote for the one from the countryside, not for the one in the job." Zhang said the leaders' direction was more of a suggestion than an order; nevertheless they took extreme measures to ensure the villagers elected the "correct" candidate. The village leaders stood guard at the polling booth and reminded each villager who entered who to vote for. "They also looked to see who was voting for who. It was supposed to be a secret ballot but they still looked."

Moreover, once the voting had been completed the local leaders removed the ballot box without counting the votes or declaring the result. "They should have counted the votes, right? Say who got how many votes. They should have declared the result but in our village they didn't and that is regrettable."

Asked what reaction the electors had to this voting procedure Zhang said, "we wanted them to count the vote but they said they couldn't. They did not say why they couldn't count the votes there and then, just that they could not. So we left it at that. Once they told us there would be no vote count, what was there left to argue about? Even after all this time (three months), we still don't know the result."

Asked about the two candidates, Zhang said the residents of Taizipo were familiar with both of them. "One comes from a village five or six kilometres away, the other, three or four kilometres away. One is our old deputy, we know him, he has served six or seven terms as our deputy. The other one also served a few terms as village secretary."

Zhang was full of praise for the old deputy. "He has done good work for all the villages, brought prosperity. No matter what the people wanted, he always tried to help. If we could not sell our tea crop for example, he could help us out with the sale."

"The other candidate we don't know too much about, so generally, given the choice we'd prefer our old deputy. I really have no idea why they told us to vote for the other guy."

Han Dongfang suggested to Zhang that the leaders wanted the deputy to be a local person from the countryside because they would necessarily understand and represent the villagers' interests better than someone who had been in the job for so long but Zhang was not sure.

"We have some doubts about him. It is like this, can we be certain he will speak for us; can he do honest work on our behalf? When he goes to the congress, will he raise our demands, make rational suggestions, help out us ordinary folk, what do you reckon?

"We want to elect someone who understands our work, at the very least stay in contact with us, do things for us ordinary folk. That's the best.

"We don't know if this new candidate will represent our interests. Who knows what he will do or say? Is he tight with us ordinary folk? How should we know?"

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Han Dongfang's interview with the Hubei villagers was broadcast in three episodes from 29 January to 1 February 2007. To read a transcript or listen to the audio file of the original broadcast please go the workers' voices section of our Chinese language website and follow the links.