Villagers cry foul after being denied proxy votes for family members
Voters in Guangdong's Taishi village, where residents tried unsuccessfully to recall their headman last year, blocked a run-off election yesterday for a delegate to a local people's congress, claiming the poll was rigged.
The election was called after one of the leaders of the recall bid, Feng Qiusheng, polled 331 of the 699 votes cast on Friday, more than rival Liang Jianhong but not enough to obtain a simple majority.
A crowd of about 20 villagers, mostly women, shouted at an equal number of election and other officials holding one of the ballot boxes yesterday morning, accusing them of refusing to let them cast proxy votes for members of their family.
'You told us proxy votes were allowed yesterday and now you won't let us vote. Everybody has gone to work - how do you expect them to come back to vote? Why don't you call off this election?' one woman shouted.
One election worker tried to take a ballot paper from one of the women, but she refused to give it up. There was no violence, unlike last year when police beat up some villagers and detained others. Mr Feng was jailed for seven months.
Panyu district and Dongchong township officials said election laws allowed for proxy votes but they were unclear about the complaints.