A delegation from the Carter Center of the US led by Dr. Gordon L. Streeb observed primary elections of a villagers' committee in north China's Hebei Province on January 7.

More than 1000 voters took part in the election, held at the playground of a primary school in Taipingzhuang Village, Baoding City. Encouraged by the villagers standing in the cold, none of the delegation members wanted to sit on the reserved seats built for them in the open air.

An official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs said that this is the first time the Ministry has invited a foreign delegation to observe such elections since the Organic Village Committee Law of the People's Republic of China was promulgated in November 1998.

The delegation is the third sent by the Carter Center to observe China's village-level elections in the last four years.