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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• A contagion of conflict in China?
• Villagers defiant as government creates new narrative
• Chinese villagers defy government in standoff over land rights
• Rebellious Chinese village under siege by police

Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

Residents of Wukan, a fishing village in the southern province of Guangdong, rally to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and the death in custody of a local leader on Dec. 15, 2011.

AFP - Getty Images

Residents prepare for the funeral of Xue Jinbo, a local leader who died in police custody, in Wukan on Dec. 15, 2011.

Reuters reports from BEIJING:

 Villagers in southern China on Thursday defied authorities and continued protests over a death in custody and land dispute in the latest outburst of simmering rural discontent that is eroding the ruling Communist Party's grip at the grassroots.

Many hundreds of residents in Wukan Village in Guangdong province held an angry march and rally despite moves by authorities to halt a land project at the center of the months-long unrest and detain local officials involved.

"The whole village is distraught and enraged. We want the central government to come in and restore justice," said one resident who described the scene.

AFP - Getty Images

Residents of Wukan march to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and Xue Jinbo's death on Dec. 15, 2011.

He and another resident, both speaking on condition of anonymity, said villagers remain enraged over last weekend's death in custody of Xue Jinbo, 42, who was detained on suspicion of helping organize protests against land seizures.

"We won't be satisfied until there is a full investigation and redress for Xue Jinbo's death," said the second resident.

"If you say he wasn't beaten to death, then you can show us the body," another villager who had his face hidden from the camera by the hood of his jacket told Hong Kong's Cable TV.

"If there really isn't any injury on the body, then why would you not return the body to us?" Continue reading.

AFP - Getty Images

Residents of Wukan take part in a rally on Dec. 15, 2011.

Read more in a Behind the Wall blog post by Ed Flanagan of NBC News: Rebellious Chinese village under siege by police