STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Wednesday, 7 March 2012

[Demeter]

15. In Chinese village that revolted, two former protesters win election

WUKAN, China — The Chinese fishing village that went into open revolt against government control last year held elections on Saturday, an event that some local people said was the first time they'd been able to elect their leaders fairly.

Young and old, the villagers who in December erected barricades made of felled trees took a seat on narrow benches and wrote in their choices for village council members. Men previously identified by officials as agitators and criminals watched the ballot boxes being sealed and then carted into school rooms. Under the glare of dozens of news cameras the votes were tallied on large orange posters leaned against the walls outside.

As night fell, the new leader and deputy head of Wukan's committee were announced: Two former protest organizers, who once faced arrest, are now in charge of the village. A remaining five spots will be filled during a runoff election on Sunday. "Before this year, I had never voted," said 71-year-old Zhang Aizhen, a woman with short white hair and a proud smile...Although China began to allow village-level balloting in the 1980s, many here said that in the past crooked officials either stage-managed elections or didn't bother to hold them at all. "In their corruption, they took whatever they wanted," said Xue Jingmian, a 25-year-old security guard who dropped his pink ballot into a steel box. "The villagers only got what was left."

After years of resentment about real estate deals brokered between local leaders and businessmen, which residents said amounted to rampant theft of communal land, villagers staged a series of demonstrations last fall that culminated in a December standoff with police. In an unusual development that gained international attention, both security and government officials got chased out of town before a deal was brokered with provincial officials....

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/03/03/140742/in-chinese-village-that-revolted.html#storylink=cpy