In Beijing’s recent "election," many independent candidates ran to be nominated as representative to the People’s Congress; however, the Chinese authorities prevented their nomination. Many found their names had been eliminated from the final list of candidates. On November 8, when the election results for the nomination to the People’s Congress in Beijing came in, only the names the government authorities chose appeared. No independent candidates made the list.
Ms. Wu Qing, a professor from Beijing Foreign Language University, said that the election procedure violated the related laws. Wu told Voice of America (VOA), “They did not hold a pre-election but rather used the number of nomination votes each candidate received as the pre-election votes.” “Taking Beijing Foreign Language University as an example, some students were asked to sign a blank recommendation form and didn’t even know who they were recommending. The same thing happened at the China University of Political Science and Law. … Some employees who worked for State Owned Enterprises were fired because they didn’t recommend their company president.”
Wu also disclosed that university students received tremendous pressure from the university authorities. “There were security personnel, secret police, the regular police, and people from my neighborhood at the university. Many students felt unprecedented pressure… The hidden guidelines from the authorities insured that the candidates recommended by the grass roots masses would never make it to the final nomination list.” She said she has made the nomination list seven times in the past, but didn’t make it this time because she was considered “the most difficult People’s Representative to deal with.”
Source: VOA, November 9, 2011
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20111109-BEIJING-ELECTION-133538593.html