China's Village Election Law Improved

December 1, 1998

China's village elections should continue to improve because of a new law passed by the National People's Congress in November. Provisions of the law parallel suggestions made by IRI after observing almost 40 village elections since 1994. They include the nationwide use of secret ballot booths, direct candidate nomination, open ballot counting, and declaring winners on the spot.

Initially skeptical, IRI has come to regard elections for village committees as a precursor to the development of a democratic culture in China. As IRI has found, however, the quality of the elections can vary greatly by province. In Fujian, for example, voters use secret ballot booths, and mail-in absentee ballots are used by those who are away during polling. By contrast, a recent observation in Sichuan, led by IRI President Lorne Craner, found voters marking ballots in crowded rooms, while others received multiple ballots to cast for absent family members.

The differences are due largely to widely varying provincial interpretations of the original, 10-year-old law that began the village election process. Leaving less discretion to local officials, many of whom fear a loss of power through elections, the new law more explicitly describes and mandates technical aspects of the elections.

Chinese officials’ estimate that only about a quarter of the country's villages have had an election that is as well administered technically as those in Fujian. The new law should ensure that the most important aspects of elections exist for the almost goo million people living in China's one million villages.

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