More than 100 people in Panguanying, Qinhuangdao City, broke into vote-counting rooms at a local primary school, and disrupted the "illegal" election for village head, the report said.
“We don’t recognize this election because the village election committee members were not recommended by us villagers. The committee cheated on the votes and threatened villagers,” Pan Zuofu, a vegetable farmer in his 40s, told the Global Times.
Pan and dozens of villagers held a red banner saying that “please return the right to vote to villagers in Panguanying” two hours after voting started. They demanded that Ru Xuejun, a town official in charge of supervising the election, explain why an election villagers considered unfair still went ahead, the newspaper said.
This is the second election in the Panguanying village in a month since the last one was sabotaged on Nov. 29 by local gangsters taking away ballot boxes, it said.
Villagers have oppose a garbage incineration project co-funded by the Qinhuangdao City government and environmental technology company Zhejiang Weiming, which villagers feared would lead to pollution since the environment assessment for the factory had been proved to be a forgery, according to the newspaper.
Pan Qingguo, 50, was quoted as saying by the Global Times that he was offered 100 yuan ($16) for each ballot for Ren Jun, a candidate who works at a local abattoir owned by the village’s former Communist Party secretary.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com