Wukan village elects deputies

WUKAN, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- More than 6,000 villagers of Wukan in south China's Guangdong province, known for last year's protests over illegal land use and other issues, voted for deputies Saturday in the second round of democratic elections for new leadership.

Their voting will result in a team of 107 village representatives and seven group leaders.

The voting, presided over by an 11-member election committee elected on Feb. 1, lasted from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at a village school.

Altogether 6,449 secret ballots were cast for group leaders and 6,491 were cast for villagers' representatives, said Yang Semao, director of the election committee.

Yang said an open count of the votes was currently being held and the election results would be announced early Sunday.

He said the votes surpassed 80 percent of the total 7,923 villagers who were entitled to vote and the election results would therefore be valid.

Wukan has about 12,000 villagers, 8,222 of whom are of legal age and are therefore entitled to vote.

Those who applied for group leader candidacy were required to get supporting signatures from at least 100 voters, while village representative candidates were required to get at least 50, according to local election procedures.