Society

City accused of rigging poll on CCTV

By Shi Yingying (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-11 08:32

Shanghai - Chinese netizens have raised doubts over the online voting results of China Central Television's (CCTV) annual program People Who Move China, accusing the government of Yichun city in East China's Jiangxi province of manipulating the outcome.

More than 80 percent of the votes cast for three candidates on the program from Jiangxi - Wang Maohua, Tan Liangcai and Zeng Kai - were from their hometowns, which was a more homogenous result compared to the votes received by other candidates.

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Over 96 percent of Wang and Tan's votes came from Jiangxi, according to the pie charts in a survey conducted on sina.com, which tracked netizens' IP addresses. Wang and Tan received the most votes, while Zeng trailed in third place on Sunday.

The online vote started on Dec 1. At the time, the trio from Jiangxi did not rank high among the 54 candidates on the program.

Chen Baocheng, a journalist from Southern Metropolis Daily, wrote on his sohu.com micro blog on Dec 4 that it was abnormal to observe such a significant increase during such a short period and claimed that students from Yichun University were "asked" to vote for Wang, Tan and Zeng.

Inan official notice posted on Yichun University's official website, teachers and students were encouraged to participate in the 2010 poll on People Who Move China. They were also told that they "must vote for Wang Maohua, Tan Liangcai and Zeng Kai". Chen took a screen shot of the notice, which he attached to his micro blog.

His post soon aroused heated debate. A netizen with the handle wyiq1998 wrote on the micro blog: "I am one of those who was 'forced to vote' and the college required us to vote for Wang, Tan and Zeng once a day."

In response, Chen said: "It is unacceptable that the local government used its power to force the students to vote."

The issue now is whether the program's staff is willing to admit what took place, he said, adding:"The finalists should be those who touch Chinese's hearts through what they did, not the ones selected in this manner."

The program first aired in 2002 and was focused on China's grassroots. Former finalists include 26-year-old solider Wu Wenbin, who died from exhaustion while assisting the rescue effort in the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008, and wheelchair-bound torchbearer Jin Jing, who defended the Olympic flame from assaults in Paris in April 2008.

Teacher Wang Maohua and his father-in-law, Tan Liangcai, were nominated for the current program for rescuing six children from a fire in April. Wang died afterwards from respiratory failure.

When asked about the poll, the local government of Yichun refused to comment on the issue.

However, a representative of Yichun University, who declined to be named, told China Daily there had been no forced voting. He said the university had only encouraged students to cast their ballots because Wang had heroic qualities and used to be a student there.