Society

Voter fraud claim in Beijing village election

By Jia Xu (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-06-29 17:21

Suspected voting fraud has delayed a village chief’s election for 15 days, the Beijing Times reported Tuesday.

Three candidates registered in the election for Dongxiaokou village, Changping district in Beijing, including the incumbent chief Li Fengqing, who won the largest number of votes during the vote on June 5.

According to the village election committee, 1,412 votes were cast, but a recount found 1,417 votes after 40 villagers questioned the result. A new election was delayed because of questions over voter’s qualification.

Some villagers complained that there were only 1,200 people in the village, but the population quickly rose to 1,500 after Li Fengqing took the position in 2001 and people from other areas settled there.

Villagers said that 26 voters had no permanent residence in the village. Li denied any wrongdoing in the demographic change.

Questions over whether the election was manipulated by certain officials have been raised to the supervisors from the upper government.

A source said the future chief will have a greater say in the village’s resettlement and urbanization process, making it a hot position.