Accessing power in Chinese villages
Election implementation in rural China has improved both in terms of coverage and
procedures. According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, balloting is now held every
three years in over 600,000 villages in all 31 provinces, with nearly 600 million
voters taking part. Since the revised Organic Law came into force in 1998, election
procedures have also been spelled out by authorities at lower levels. By the mid
2000s, nearly every province had issued electoral regulations that matched, or went
beyond, the national law, and detailed implementation guidelines had also been
formulated by many prefectures, counties, and townships.