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The newly elected villagers' committee chairman, Song Xianglin, 35, was the only candidate nominated for the position in the election, and had already served at the position for two consecutive terms between December 2005 and December 2011. The Organic Law of Villagers' Committees stipulates that the villagers' committee chairman serves three years each term and can seek reelection.
According to Zhang, it is not unusual for a village to have only one candidate for the chairmanship of villagers' committee.
"In economically developed villages, the chairmanship of the villagers' committee is highly sought after; whereas in less developed villages, many villagers are reluctant to run for the position for fear that holding the position will prevent them from migrating to cities to make money. Sometimes, villagers find themselves having to convince the candidate they have nominated to run," Zhang said.
In his latest election campaign, Song pledged to increase the annual per-capita net income of Lichang villagers to 5,000 yuan ($769) in three years, up from 1,400 yuan ($215) in 2011.
Lichang is not well-endowed with natural resources and villagers primarily make their living from the fields. In Song's first two tenures, Lichang villagers' annual per-capita net income increased from 400 yuan ($61) to 1,400 yuan. But it was mainly achieved by encouraging young people to find work in cities and remit money to the village.
Though it is not an easy task to double the villagers' annual per-capita net income in three years, Song said he was confident of achieving the goal by developing the agricultural products processing industry. In a campaign speech, Song said he had negotiated with food companies in neighboring counties and cities about the possibility of their opening processing factories in Lichang.
"If factories could be brought to the village, they would boost the village's economic development, and villagers would be able to find jobs without leaving the village," he said.
At the end of the 1970s, China implemented the reform and opening-up policy. Land was contracted out to individual farmers under the household responsibility system.
After the reform, production teams were abolished and production team leaders no longer governed villages. However, village-level administration is needed to inform villagers of government policies, convey villagers' complaints and suggestions to upper-level governments, sign land contracts and resolve conflicts between villagers.
In the early 1980s, in some villages in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, villagers spontaneously established villagers' committees to handle their affairs.
The first such spontaneous self-governing body was set up in February 1980 in Guozuo Village in Yishan County. Before land was contracted out, the village had six production teams. After the reform, villagers decided to elect a villagers' committee to practice self-governance. The candidates in the first election were six former production team leaders and a villager. Finally, voters elected five people to the villagers' committee, including a chairman, a vice chairman and three members.
The Constitution passed in December 1982 legitimized villagers' committees. From 1983 onward, more and more villages in China began to elect villagers' committees, and by 1985, villagers committees had been set up nationwide.
To standardize these local elections, in 1987 the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, enacted the Organic Law of Villagers' Committees, which lays down the legal framework for villagers' committee elections.
In 1988, Shanxi held its first villagers' committee elections. Lichang villager Liu said he was then so inexperienced that he slavishly followed others' suggestions. However, the second time he participated in the election in 1993, he made his own choice. After 1993, villagers' committee elections have become a triennial event in Shanxi. So far, Liu has participated in seven such elections.
Lu Xueyi, former Director of the Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes the villagers' committee system is an example of rural grassroots democracy with Chinese characteristics. He said that the system has achieved reasonably good results.
In some exceptional cases villagers' committee elections have been affected by powerful clans and bribery scandals.
Zhang said that such problems also exist in elections in Western countries, and they are worldwide problems. "China's village elections are at a preliminary stage, and farmers still do not have a good awareness of democracy. Once a problematic election is found, relevant government departments will investigate and punish the people involved and a re-election will be organized," he said.
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