BEIJING - Village heads who fail to pass appraisals in the villages for two consecutive years will automatically be removed from their positions, according to the latest draft law amendment designed to better supervise rural officials and village elections.

The second draft amendment to the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees was submitted for review at the ongoing legislative session, which began on Tuesday.

The previous draft introduced the annual appraisal mechanism of village committee members, though sacking the disqualified officials required a complicated recall procedure.

In reality, the recall procedure is difficult to initiate, because at least one-fifth of the residents in a village, or one-third of village deputies, must jointly sign a motion requesting the recall, according to the existing law.

In addition, more than half of all villagers who have registered to vote must appear at the recall meeting and the recall is only valid if it receives the support of half of those in attendance.

"Such a complicated procedure hinders villagers from exercising their power," said Liu Xirong, vice-chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Law Committee.

Some NPC Standing Committee members have proposed a smoother channel for the removal of unpopular village officials, so the latest version makes it an automatic consequence if the official is rated as unqualified for two consecutive years, Liu said.

"The change is good. Village heads will feel more pressure during their work," said Wang Caiyue, a former village head in Qiuzhuang of Pingdingshan city in Central China's Henan province.

Without the new amendment, "no matter how badly the official performs, he or she can always finish a term of three years until the next election", she said.

However, the new draft law fails to extend the term of the village committee from three to five years, as recommended by a number of officials and scholars.

Local people's congresses from 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have made similar proposals to prolong the term of village officials to keep pace with the reshuffling of county and township officials, which is every five years, according to a document from the NPC Standing Committee.

Such a change will also help maintain stability in the rural areas, as well as save on the cost of elections, the document said.

Wang said she is also in support of extending the terms.

As the saying goes, village officials usually work only during the second year of the term, she said.

In the first year, they have to watch the situation and during the third year they are waiting to be replaced.

"A term of five years gives the official more time to implement his or her policies," she said.

Insiders said the NPC Law Committee had a bitter argument over the issue. Since it would be a profound change, the committee finally decided not to write it into the second draft until it has heard more from various parties.

Wang Changbing, a villager in Yuzixi village of Southwest China's Sichuan province, said he actually doesn't care so much about the term.

He said as far as he has seen or heard, buying votes always occurs in village committee elections, so "village heads can easily get re-elected".

"You pay money, I vote for you. It's simple," he said.

The existing law bans buying votes, but fails to explain how to define it.

According to insiders, the NPC Law Committee has also considered making some specific rules about purchasing votes, but the issue is too complicated to address at this time.

"One candidate gives each villager 10 yuan for his vote. The other candidate kills his or her pig and sends a piece of meat to every one. Is the second practice buying a vote?" the insider asked.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/23/2010 page3)