"It is the most extensive practice of socialist democracy to expand grass-roots democracy, ensure that people directly exercise their democratic rights, manage their own affairs according to law and create their own happy lives." The democratic election system of villagers' committees, which is being widely implemented in China, has guaranteed the democratic rights of hundreds of millions of rural people and accumulated valuable experience for democracy in China. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the trial of the organic law of village committees in China. On June 26th, the Third Session of the Ninth the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) announced the revised draft of the organic law of village committees submitted by the State Council, soliciting opinions from the society. The just-concluded Third Plenary Session of the 15th CPC Central Committee once again affirmed that the implementation of villagers' autonomy is a great creation for the Party to lead hundreds of millions of peasants to build democratic politics in Socialism with Chinese characteristics, and stressed that this work should be carried out in a step-by-step and orderly manner under the unified leadership of the Party, and various systems should be established and improved, closely integrated with the sound legal system. In order to help readers understand the current situation of rural grassroots democracy construction in China, our reporter went to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to understand the situation.

China Rural Villagers' Committee is a first-class rural grassroots self-governing organization established under the county and township (town) governments after the abolition of the people's commune system in 1983. Since1June 1988, when the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees of the People's Republic of China was tried out, the practice of village committee election has gone through ten spring and autumn. During this period, rural village committees in China generally held three general elections. Some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government have basically completed the fourth general election of village committees. This year, a large number of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government are conducting or have deployed a new general election of village committees, and the election of rural village committees has gradually embarked on a standardized and institutionalized track. According to statistics, by the end of 1997, there were 905804 village committees in rural areas, with 378804 village committee cadres1person.

The institutional framework for the election of village committees was initially established. The Constitution and the organic law of village committees clearly stipulate the basic principles of village committee elections, and 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government have further stipulated the village committee elections in their respective administrative regions in the implementation measures of the organic law of village committees. The people's congresses or people's governments of Fujian, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Guizhou, Hunan, Hebei, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Henan and other provinces and autonomous regions have also promulgated methods for the election of village committees. Many prefectures (cities), counties (cities) and townships (towns) have formulated specific measures to guide the election of village committees in light of local conditions. In the democratic election of village committees, the legal system framework from central to local, from guiding principles to specific operational norms has been initially established.

The organizational level of village Committee elections has been improved in an all-round way. In most places, the election work has basically achieved unified deployment, unified and standardized election procedures, unified term of office, and unified provincial election statistics. During the general election, guidance institutions were set up step by step from provincial to township, and a large number of election staff at all levels were trained. Voters are generally elected. Some also unify the election day of the village Committee by county.

Farmers' right to vote is generally respected and protected. Farmers are very concerned about the election of village committees, and the participation rate in various places is generally above 90%. In order to produce preliminary candidates for village committees fairly, openly and justly, various localities have continuously improved their nomination methods. After repeated practice of nomination methods, such as party's grass-roots organization nomination, villagers' group nomination, village Committee leadership nomination, villagers' joint nomination and villagers' self-recommendation, the nomination method based on villagers' nomination has gradually formed. Among them, "sea election", that is, uncertain and designated candidates, is an important form of villagers' nomination, and candidates are elected by each voter according to the conditions of candidates. In many provinces, villagers who go out to work or do business but can't go back to their villages to vote are given "letter tickets" to protect their voting rights. In order to prevent interference with the independent expression of voters' wishes, in the elections after 1994, secret polling stations are generally set up at the election sites, and voters enter in turn to vote by secret ballot.

The electoral process embodies the principles of openness, democracy and equality. In recent years, in many places, all voters participated in the primary election, and some villagers' representatives participated in the primary election, and the official candidates were determined according to the votes obtained by the preliminary candidates. All these have increased democracy and transparency in producing official candidates. After the official candidate is determined, many places introduce the official candidate to voters through various forms. Formal candidates, especially the two candidates of village directors, should announce the plan of smelting villages to the villagers, allowing villagers to ask questions on the spot and allowing candidates to ask questions from each other to facilitate voters' choice. After the voting, it is usually the same day to open the box in public, check the votes, sing the votes, count the votes, announce the election results and issue election certificates.