Polls close in village election in Wukan after mass protests

Описание: (3 Mar 2012)
1. Various of a sealed ballot box being taken away
2. Mid of sealed ballot boxes being put together
3. Mid of a man unsealing a ballot box
4. Close of ballots
5. Wide of people sorting ballots
6. Wide pan right from crowds to people counting votes
7. Close of men watching counting
8. Top shot of people counting vote
9. Mid of people writing vote on paper
10. Wide of people counting vote, banner on top reading: (Chinese) "Civil Election, Fair Competition"
11. Mid of a man counting vote
12. Close of names on the vote counting board
13. Wide of election committee announcing results of the election
14. Wide of crowds
15. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Lin Zuluan, the newly elected village chief:
"Today the election held by Wukan village election committee is valid."
16. Cutaway media
17. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Lin Zuluan, the newly elected village chief:
"We will do the best job we can with the power given by your great support and help."
18. Mid of Lin leaving
STORYLINE:
Villagers who staged a rebellion against local officials they accused of stealing their farmland elected a new village chief on Saturday in a much-watched poll which reformers hope will set the standard for resolving protracted disputes which beset China.
Polls closed at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Saturday in the small fishing village of Wukan in Southern China and sealed ballot boxes were taken away so the ballots could be counted.
Several thousand locals voted for the seven-member village committee and Lin Zuluan who led the protest three months ago was elected village chief.
Zuluan immediately declared the election to be "valid", saying the village committee would "do the best job we can with the power given by your great support and help."
China has allowed village elections for nearly three decades but local Communist Party leaders - the real power-holders - often try to manipulate the results. By those standards, Wukan has carried out what seems to be one of China's freest polls.
Tens of thousands of protests occur in China each year, many of them compounded by indifferent if not corrupt local officials.
As in many villages, Wukan's troubles arose over land. Villagers said the local head, in power for decades, sold their farmland to developers without their consent.
Protests flared last year, with villagers smashing a police station and cars. After key village activists were detained in December, villagers drove out officials and barricaded themselves in for 10 days, keeping police out and holding boisterous rallies.
Unlike similar standoffs in China that often end in arrests, the provincial government conceded. It offered to stage the new elections, return some of the disputed farmland and release the detained activists, as well as the body of one who died in detention.
The result was hailed by more liberal Chinese state media and democratic campaigners as the "Wukan model" - a systematic approach in which the government uncharacteristically puts the interests of locals ahead of its usual emphasis on maintaining order.
Wang Yang, Guangdong's party secretary who has a reputation as a reformer, said Wukan showed that a balance can be struck between "preserving stability and preserving rights."
Many experts, however, said that it's far too soon to say if political leaders will summon the will to replicate Wukan's lessons elsewhere.

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