Villagers brave downpour, return to polls

Because only one person won the number of votes needed to enter the new leadership on Monday, the globally famous fishing village of Wukan in Guangdong province went back to the polls again on Tuesday to elect the six other members of the new village committee.

The polling began at noon and lasted through 4 pm on Tuesday. Voters braved torrential rains, which seemed not to dampen the locals' enthusiasm for the election.

"I heard last night the polling yesterday recorded 8,249 effective votes out of the village's 9,100-odd eligible voters, a rate higher than the one in 2012 by about 10 percentage points," said a local elder who identified himself with the surname Zhang.

"You can see with your own eyes that so many villagers are carefully filling in the ballot tickets under the shelters."

"Many of us hope that the new committee will take office as soon as possible," Zhang said.

"I don't care whoever become new leaders, so long as they really care about the interest of the village selflessly and bring the village development back on track."

Zhang's viewpoint was echoed by Cai Zhou, a local driver who was on site on both Monday and Tuesday.

"I hope the new committee will accelerate the development of infrastructure and public facilities to improve the investment climate and draw back investments," he said. "If so, we can make more money and lead a better life."

Official sources said that governments at different levels have set aside a fund of 68.08 million yuan ($10.96 million) for the development of public projects in the village.

A new library and new sports facilities for the local school have gone into service, while a new road, a shelter for fishing boats, a dorm building for local teachers and a rural park are under construction.

Lin Zulian, the re-elected head of a new village committee, said that he was sad that corruption has left some public projects unfinished.

"The new leadership will beef up supervision to nip corruption in the bud, step up the development of public projects and keep the development of the village stable and harmonious," Lin said.

The village made global headlines in the second half of 2011 when the villagers staged massive rallies for months in protest of the then leadership's illegal land grabs, corruption and election rigging schemes.

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