Ballots were distributed, marked by voters, and stuffed in a red ballot box. While the crowd waited for the tallies, village school teachers and students entertained them with songs and dances.

It's a typical scene during the ongoing election of deputies to the township people's congress in east China's Jiangsu Province and in 40,000 other towns across China. Most of the township deputies in China completed their three-year term this year.

In the economically developed regions of east China, where direct election of people's deputies to township congress and village heads have been held for 10 to 20 years, election procedures and organizational work were orderly and in line with the law.

Yaogou Village, in Danyang City of Jiangsu, held its election in the large meeting room of a village business where voters chose two deputies for the township people's congress.

The election campaign began three months ago, with villagers recommending 13 candidates. According to the election rules, every ten voters may recommend a candidate in the primary stage of the election.

To ensure a quick and smooth voting, election organizers consulted villagers on their preferences, and based on public opinion, they chose three "formal candidates" for the election.

"I'm grateful to my fellow villagers' confidence in me," said a delighted Gu Huajun, one of the three formal candidates. "If elected, I will spend more time studying the laws for the protection of villagers' rights."

"People's deputies are servants of the people," said the 24-year-old Gu, a section chief of the village business, explaining that he is running for the deputy position "to serve the village and the community."

Unfortunately, he was defeated by two incumbent deputies who were running for re-election, one a village head, another a female village official in charge of women's issues and family planning work. The village head promised in his election campaign that he would ask the township congress to pave a road for the village.

But no election passes without a hitch. At the start of the Yaogou village election, one villager discovered he was not included on the list of eligible voters, and subsequently ripped the election poster down in protest. But the situation was righted when authorities realized the man's name was absent because he had temporarily moved out of the village, then returned without informing village officials.

Election officials then had to add his name to the voter list and publicize the name-list to prevent future mishaps.

In the neighboring city of Zhangjiagang, many election halls are equipped with enclosed voting booths to ensure voters' privacy. For convenience of voters who have to work and cannot get to the voting venue, electorate staff take a ballot box to them to collect votes.

Of the three formal candidates in the 27th Electorate of Yangshe Town of Zhangjiagang City, only one is a Communist Party member. Another, Huang Yongfa, is from the China Democratic League, one of the eight non-communist parties in China.

Huang, a math teacher, said that he will promote use of multimedia in primary and middle schools.

To ensure full representativeness of people's deputies, Jiangsu Province proposed that the Communist Party committees should not recommend more than 15 percent of the candidates, and more than 35 percent of them must be non-communists.

According to Wang Shihu, an official with the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, direct elections of township people's deputies and village heads are two pillars of grassroots democracy in China.

He quoted late top legislator Peng Zhen as saying more than 10 years ago that direct elections are training grounds for millions of villagers. "Based on the election work I saw, I think these training classes are having an effect," Wang said.

A total of 700 million to 800 million people will take part in the current village elections, which started in mid-2001 and will conclude at the end of this year, he noted.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2002)