Backgrounder: Timeline of events in scandal-dogged Wukan village

Election for a new leadership kicks off on Monday in Wukan Village in south China's Guangdong Province.

The village grabbed worldwide headlines in 2011, when villagers staged large-scale protests and drove out village heads whom they accused of illegal land grabs.

Here is a timeline of the events in Wukan dating back to September 2011.

2014

-- March 31 Election of new village committee kicks off.

-- March 18 Hong Ruichao, deputy chief of Wukan, detained for alleged bribery.

-- March 14 Yang Semao, deputy village chief, bailed to prepare for the upcoming election of the village's new leadership.

-- March 13 Yang Semao detained for alleged bribery.

2012

-- April 23 Two former officials of Wukan deprived of Communist Party of China membership over corruption and election-rigging charges.

-- March 4 Seven members of Wukan's village committee elected.

-- March 3 Villagers go to polls for a new village committee election, which includes a chief, two deputy chiefs and four members. Lin Zulian elected as chief of the committee with 6,205 votes, and Yang Semao, winning 3,609 votes, elected as deputy chief of the committee.

-- February 11 Villagers vote for deputies in the second round of democratic elections for new leadership. Their voting is expected to result in a team of 107 village representatives and seven village committee members.

-- February 1 Election kicks off for new leadership after former village heads were removed.

-- January 15 Wukan sets up new CPC branch and a work team to prepare for the upcoming election of the village committee.

2011

-- December 30 Work team concedes that the major demands of Wukan villagers are reasonable and that local officials did make "some mistakes."

-- December 28 Wang Yemin, in charge of village committee election with a work team, announces the result was invalid when briefing the investigation over Wukan's election. He says a new election will be held soon.

-- December 23 Three people from Wukan, who had been detained by police for alleged vandalism in the protests, released on bail pending trial.

-- December 22 Zhu Mingguo, deputy secretary of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, heads a work team to Wukan. He emphasizes fairness and openness in handling of the situation.

-- December 20 Provincial officials promise to restore stability as soon as possible as the village is overwhelmed with demonstrators, and a special government work team is founded to handle the situation.

-- December 13 The technology sector of Guangdong Provincial People's Procuratorate informs Xue Jinbo's family of the results of the investigation of his death by a third party, which believes that his death accords with the general pathologic features of a sudden death.

-- December 11 Wukan villagers gather again after Xue, who was suspected of organizing the demonstration in November, dies in police custody.

-- December 9 Xue and two others arrested on suspicion of damaging public property and disrupting public service and put in police custody at the Shanwei Detention Center.

-- November 21 and 22 Large-scale protests in the village.

-- September 21 and 22 Villagers in Wukan, south China's Guangdong Province, vent their anger against village authorities over issues related to land use, financing and election of local officials. Xue Jinbo and other agitated villagers break into local government offices and police stations and destroy six police cars.