Activists, Lawyers Denounce Results Of Taishi LPC Election

A group of 35 nationally-recognized lawyers and human rights defenders, including Gao Zhisheng and Guo Feixiong, announced they would sue a local election committee to challenge the results of a recent local people's congress (LPC) election in Dongyong township, Guangdong province, according to a March 30 South China Morning Post (SCMP)/AsiaNews article.

The challenge follows a March 20 runoff election in which Feng Qiusheng, an LPC candidate from Taishi village, lost to a rival candidate supported by local officials. Authorities had jailed Feng Qiusheng for seven months after he participated in a mid-2005 effort to impeach the Taishi village committee head for corruption. In October 2005, the government suppressed the impeachment effort, closed Web sites that reported on the citizen efforts, and accused the rights defenders who worked to support the Taishi villagers of endangering social stability.

Defeated candidate Feng Qiusheng and his supporters allege that the rival candidate bought votes, according to a March 29 South China Morning Post (SCMP) report. Guo Feixiong also alleged that local officials tampered with ballots.

The national Election Law for the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses only allows court challenges with regard to voter eligibility, not election results. But Yao Lifa, one of the lawyers supporting the Tashi villagers said that "[w]e know the courts will not accept our case but we still have to try ... we want to prod them into perfecting the law."