Grass-roots democratic elections in the countryside could promote better communication and understanding between rural residents and grass-roots officials to better protect the interests of residents, according to an article in Nanfang Metropolis News. An excerpt follows:

The importance of a democratic election lies in its role to create a smooth channel for communication between rural residents and the grass-roots officials they elect. Such a mechanism is based on the trust of voters in those they elect.

Such an election mechanism will contribute to the social stability in rural areas as residents will find more channels to express their opinions.

The system of democratic elections, involving the making of decisions on village affairs by the villagers themselves, has been improved consistently since the revised Organic Law of Villager's Committees was enacted in 1998.

Experiences in China's countryside show that the establishment of democratic politics is integral to the development of rural areas.

In rural areas, democratic elections could ensure a smooth co-ordination mechanism to safeguard the interests of all concerned parties.

The traditional way to ensure the interests of rural residents is to strengthen supervision of local government and village officials. However, supervision from the central government cannot reach every corner of the countryside.

Governments at all levels have mechanisms involving letters and visits to handle people's complaints. The higher levels of government often use visits and complaints from residents as the criteria to evaluate the political career of lower-level government officials.

This in turn prods these officials to prevent rural residents from passing on their complaints to higher levels of government.

In this sense, it is a fundamental solution to create a communication mechanism between villagers and officials through promoting grass-roots democratic elections.

For the central government, it will shake off the heavy burden of supervising local officials, which is often ineffective. What it should do is maintain orderly elections and punish those who take part in illegal activities during the voting process.