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SCMP Reporter

Independents defiant after the district election commission fails to approve them

Students running in Beijing's district congress elections will not be included on the official ballots because they have not been approved by the district election commission.

Independent candidates running in various districts in the city said they also had little hope of being approved when all the ballots were settled later in the week.

The Beijing local elections will take place next Wednesday,  with 7.9 million voters selecting  4,403 deputies from 6,000 candidates.

Yin Jun, a candidate and an economics post-graduate student at Peking University, said none of the 30-plus students who announced their candidacy weeks ago would be included on the ballots.

But many of the independent candidates remain undeterred, selling themselves to voters as 'alternative candidates'.

'My main purpose is to run in the election and I still intend to do so,' Mr Yin said.

Every ballot has a list of candidates approved by the  commission and a  space where voters can name people who are not on the list.

Yao Lifa became the first person to be elected as an  alternative candidate in more than 20 years when he ran in Qianjiang, Hebei province, in 1998.

His son, Yao Yao, will run this year as a candidate in Beijing's Changping district. Although he has not yet received final word on whether his name will be included on the ballot, Yao Yao said he was not expecting good news. 'The result is predictable,' he said.

Independent candidates have complained that the manner in which names are selected for the ballots is not transparent.

Although residents in the electoral area under Peking University were given a chance to have their say on who should be included on the ballot - by selecting three from a total of eight names - none of the area's independent candidates was included on the original list.

Student Li Chunliang  said he had 'randomly recommended' two professors from the list although he knew little about them.

'I also heard there were students running, but I don't know their names, and I don't want to elect them. The teachers should be more experienced in my opinion.'

Shu Kexin, a candidate and  campaigner for the rights of residents in property disputes, rated his chances of being named on the ballot as 'zero'.

But he said he also intended to run as an alternative candidate. 'I think we independents have been successful in terms of arousing people's awareness of democracy. Everyone has the right to run in these elections,' he said.

Mr Shu also said he hoped that  more independent candidates would step forward next time.

'I hope in the next election five years from now, more independent candidates come out and we can supervise the way the official ballot is generated together.'



Students are left off ballot papers in Beijing