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Bobby Yip / Reuters
A villager, 2nd right, checks with an election worker beside a ballot box at a school turned into a polling station in Wukan village in Lufeng, Guangdong province, China, on Feb. 1, 2012.
Reuters reports from WUKAN, China:
Residents of a restive village in southern China held a symbolic election on Wednesday in what is being seen as a small step towards grassroots rights.
The rebellion last year against abuse of power and the illegal sale of hundreds of hectares of farmland in coastal Wukan have become a benchmark of rural defiance against land grabs and corruption that blight villages nation-wide.
Bobby Yip / Reuters
An election worker, left, looks out from inside a classroom guarded by police officers during vote counting at a school turned into a polling station in Wukan on Feb. 1, 2012.
More than 6,000 villagers streamed into a school amid brilliant sunshine, with turnout well over 80 percent.
"This far exceeded our expectations," said Yang Semao, a village elder who helped officiate. "It shows our passion for democracy." Read the full story.
Bobby Yip / Reuters
Villagers voting in Wukan on Feb. 1, 2012.
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I think we are seeing the very first part of what China has brought on it's self, in that they let to many of their people have an education. You can talk about freedom and shairing the fruits of their labors but when you have only a few who can have it then the rest will want it to. Power to the people!
Happy glasnost!!