Earlier this week we posted the translated microblog posts of independent candidate Yu Nan, who had made it to the preliminary round of the election and become an official candidate. [Read more about the group of citizens using microblogs to wage independent campaigns for local people’s congress.] On September 7, Yu was suddenly notified by the Election Committee of the National People’s Congress and asked to turn in original copies of the household registrations and property certificates for all of his 17 nominators. In addition, one of the nominators was required to be present at the Committee for an interview. Yu later managed to collect all of the required documentations in time, and his wife was interviewed as a nominator.
On September 9, however, Yu’s candidacy was revoked with no reason or any prior notification given, despite the fact that he was on the list of four officially registered candidates. And since only three representatives are needed in Yu’s district, there will be no surprise on the election day, which will be September 15.
Yu then stopped updating his microblog until September 12, when he announced that he had decided to continue following up with the election. He has filed an appeal to the local Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress but has not received a responses of any sort by far (September 14 at 7PM, CST). There is no public information available whatsoever regarding who the rest of the candidates are. According to China’s election regulation, one of the local Standing Committee’s main responsibilities is to coordinate meetings between official candidates and voters, and candidates are to be prepared to answer voters’ questions during the meeting.
Yu wrote on his microblog on the change of announcing posters:
“On September 9 at 9AM, the original posters announcing officially registered candidates were still at the local election stations, but they were ripped off in the afternoon and were replaced by a different version with only the names of three other candidates. On September 10 at 8AM, the new posters vanished again. Did our dear public servants actually work during the Moon Festival long weekend holiday?”
上周5早9点，各个选举点张贴的候选人红榜依然在贴，下午忽然撕去，换上仅有三名候选人的红榜，周6早8点，新贴的红榜又全部毁尸灭迹，我们敬爱的公仆们在中秋长假期间竟然上班？
Through his microblog, Yu has called for netizens to “surround and watch” the election in Chengguan District of Lanzhou, which is scheduled on September 15 at 9:30AM (CST).
Below is Yu’s appeal to the local standing committee:
Yu took a picture of a banner in his neighborhood that says “The People’s Congress system is the fundamental political system of the People’s Republic of China.”
Following is a picture of one of the bulletin boards where all the announcement posters were.
Read also: “Independent Candidate Yu Nan: ‘China Is Most in Need of Transparency Now’“, and other CDT posts about the independent candidates as well as recent reports from NPR and the Washington Post.
