While the whole world’s attention is drawn to the US election, something is quietly happening in China. China has not had a truly democratic election since 1949. Its “People’s Congress” is made up of members appointed by the Party. But these “representatives” have to go through the formality of an election, to give them a stamp of approval by “people’s votes”. Any independent candidates are constantly harassed by police until they give up and withdraw. If they don’t, then in case that they actually win enough votes to be elected (as in the case of the wife of astrophysicist Fang Lizhi), they will either immediately end up in jail or be exiled to the US, thus vacating their seats to be filled by the Party.
This time, however, something different is going on. By election law, any candidate must get more than half of the votes cast in order to be elected. If no candidate gets more than half then there will be a runoff. The law also says that the number of candidates must be greater than the number of seats. So if a district has three seats, the Party would put up four candidates (as shown in the ballot on the title picture). People should vote for three out of four, and it is very hard for the top three vote getters to not pass the 50% threshold.
But they didn’t!
This is the description by one of the local voters (translated from the top of the image at right):
To those who say that we don’t treasure our voting rights: How do we treasure? You are given a ballot, on which list a few names that no one recognizes. I’d rather vote for braised chicken. If I cast a serious vote it will be declared invalid and then we revote. If independent candidates get enough votes they’ll be dragged by police to talk.
Strictly speaking, if none of the candidates get enough votes they cannot be elected. So this is a silent protest.
I casted a blank ballot...because I don’t know any of the candidates...no one came to tell me why he was running, and no one asked for my vote...of course I vote blank to express my opinion.
The once-every-five-years national election for people’s representatives was held on Nov. 16, 2016. Because too many votes went to Hilary, Trump, Braised Chicken, Jiang Zemin and other such people/things loved by Shanghainese (especially in Songjiang District, it was said that Hillary was the highest vote getter), the officially designated candidates were not able to be elected through the formal process. Many districts were forced to hold emergency re-votes. The complete “overrun” of the Songjiang District is probably related to its concentration of universities. Many well-known universities, including Shanghai International Studies University: SISU, Donghua University, and East China University of Political Science and Law, all have campuses in this district.
Our votes are precious. They don’t come easy.