The Ministry of Civil Affairs (MOCA) pledged reforms that aim to tighten supervision and improve transparency of grass-roots elections Wednesday at a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress.
Jiang Li, a MOCA vice minister, said a continuing standoff more than one year after large-scale protests over land disputes and corruption in the village of Wukan, Guangdong Province, didn't reflect a failure of the democratic village election system.
"The current difficulty for Wukan is solving conflicts over long-term economic interests. A trustworthy village committee can be chosen from a legitimate election, but solving economic conflicts accumulated over a long time requires a village committee's wisdom and villagers' cooperation," Jiang said, denying that the country's attempt to practice direct elections in rural areas had failed.
In September 2011, villagers in Wukan began protests that spanned four months to voice their opposition against alleged illegal land seizures and corruption by local officials. A new village committee was sworn in early last year after democratic elections, although not all disputes have been resolved.
Grass-roots democracy has grown in China in recent years, with nearly 5.9 million village committees, accounting for around 98 percent of all villages nationwide, democratically elected, according to the MOCA.
About 600 million Chinese farmers are expected to participate in the latest round of village committee elections, which started in 2011 and will end this year, Jiang said.
However, the election process is still chaotic due to rampant bribery and violence used by candidates to secure top positions.
"Village elections are sabotaged because county chiefs like to maintain their power over the nomination of village heads. On the other hand, there are conflicts between villagers due to disagreement on wealth distribution," said Liu Yiqiang, a professor at the Institute of China Rural Studies at Central China Normal University.
Liu noted many laws and regulations have been passed to improve village elections, but said there was ambiguity over who was responsible for enforcing these laws.
"Local courts haven't accepted a single case involving the alleged sabotage of a village election. Civil affairs bureaus, which don't have a law enforcement mandate, have instead shouldered too much of the burden in handling conflicts triggered by village elections," Liu said.
Jiang said the government is soliciting public opinions for guidance on amending village election and committee laws.
Not only does supervision of village elections need to be improved, but laws need to be amended to minimize the risk of election sabotage, Liu said.
The MOCA will press for information disclosure of village affairs to improve transparency as well as greater villager participation in the decision-making process of issues of key concern, such as land deals.
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