China is revising rural election law to protect the democratic rights of its farmers and promote village democracy in the country's vast countryside.

"Democratic management" is listed as one of the requirements of building a new socialist countryside in the 11th Five-Year Guidelines (2006-2010) of China. Premier Wen Jiabao said in his government work report on March 5 that "building a new socialist countryside must respect the will of Chinese farmers and strengthen democracy at a basic level".

"Democracy at a basic level was established two decades ago and the democratic awareness of farmers has been growing ever since," said Wang Jinhua, director of rural affairs for the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

However, he acknowledged that in some villages, there are cases of buying votes and official manipulation in village elections. But there are no specific regulations available to which they can refer.

China's countryside has seen an increase in the number of mass protests over recent years, most of which are triggered by land requisitions. Wang said this is mainly ascribed to a lack of policy adjustment and mismanagement by rural officials.

"Just like a toddler learning to walk, you have to let it walk on the ground. It might fall or get hurt, but only then can it practice and learn and be able to walk," said Wang, alluding to the development of China's grassroots democracy.

Pingtang village in Yongxiu county, east China's Jiangxi Province, was like this "toddler". For villager Ma Zucai, October 30, 2005 was a memorable day for him. He and his wife got up early that day, took out their ballot papers and headed for the voting spot in the village to vote for the candidates of the next village committee.

Just like the Ma, 1,285 farmer folks in Pingtang village voted that day. The first two people who get the most votes will run for the posts for which they were nominated. Wu Xiaogen, the village's Party branch secretary, said the election was aimed to "elect those who can really serve the interests of villagers."

"When we had an exhibition in Europe, showing this election case in China's countryside, the Europeans were amazed at the democracy evident at village level in China," William Massolin, EU Co-Director of the Training Program on Village Governance, told Xinhua.

In 2005, approximately 300,000 villages in China's 18 provinces had village committee elections.

The Organic Law of Village Committees was approved by a meeting of the Sixth National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee in 1987 and went on trial on June 1, 1988. In 1998, the law formally granted farmers the right to directly elect or oust their village heads and members of the villagers' committees.

There is a stronger democratic awareness in villages in coastal areas than in the interior areas. "To improve basic-level democracy, an effective system is one thing but it also needs coordinated development of rural economy, culture and education," said Xu Qida, vice president of the China Civil Affairs College.

"It will take more time for China's basic-level democracy to mature - maybe 40 to 50 years," Xu said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2006)