Standing in extremely cold weather for five hours, the Carter Center delegation from the US observed 988 Daguanzhuang village farmers elect their village head for the next three years.

Gordon L.Streeb, head of the Carter Center delegation said, "The whole process was efficient, smooth."

This "election in the snow" in Daguanzhuang village of Qianxi county in the city of Tangshan in north China's Hebei Province is just one example of what has happened in one million of China's villages. This election was the first of its kind since the "Organic Village Committee Law of the People's Republic of China" was promulgated in November 1998.

This law gives every villager the power to nominate and elect village officials, and for the first time prohibits, by law, any organization from nominating candidates.

Zhan Chengfu, director of the Rural Areas Division of the Grass-roots Political Power Building Department under the Civil Affairs Ministry, said that this law is a breakthrough, and helps hundreds of millions of Chinese farmers to make their own choices by free, fair, and just elections.

The devastating Tangshan earthquake of 1976 claimed 240,000 lives, destroyed over 97 percent of the city's industrial and civil infrastructure, and caused over three billion yuan of directeconomic losses. Now, the city has the 25th highest GDP in the country, over 50 billion yuan, as it makes democratic progress.

The Daguanzhuang village election began at nine o'clock this morning after the eight villagers committee candidates made their election speeches according to strict election speech regulations.

Guan Hengcheng, 68, said: "The candidates have faced all the voters and expressed themselves in their election speeches, which is helpful for increasing election transparency. Today's election is fair, and we feel sure about electing village cadres in this way."

The long vote-counting process began after brief speeches by the villagers committee candidates. The courtyard of the villagerscommittee was like an ice house, but the voters remained, and theystood in the cold for five hours, hundreds of eyes watching the vote tally on a blackboard, and anxiously waited for results.

Gordon L. Streeb head of this first foreign delegation invited by the Ministry of Civil Affairs to observe a village-level election this year, said that they witnessed the villagers nominate candidates in the first round, without any outside interference, and the voters got a further understanding of the villagers committee candidates in the second round.

Qianxi County had formulated the country's first election speech regulations which required all candidates to participate inelection speeches, and also stipulated time schedules, place, and format. The villagers committee election is the form of direct elections in China, and also the nation's most developed grass-root democratic mode now.

Zhan Chengfu noted: "China's grass-root elections have developed to today's level based not on empty words, but on law and a standard election process. Qianxi's regulations have set a good example for others to follow."

Professor Shi Weimin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences pointed out that village-level leadership is the first step towardrealizing grass-root democracy. Ensuring that these leaders administer village affairs under the supervision of villagers still needs a more developed system of guarantee.