When Wang Xingfu was elected head of his central China village by an overwhelming majority, he felt clearly it was just a first step to his one-man crusade for the well-being of villagers and their democratic rights.
  
He had been a household name in the largely agricultural Henan Province long before he stood out in the early summer grassroot-level election with 1,009 votes in favor, or 65 percent of all the 1,552 valid ballots.
  
The 52-year-old had been a "troublemaker" to under-performing local officials, a voluntary spokesman for whiney peasants and an unbending activist to promote democracy and rule of law in China's rural areas, where millions of farmers are yet to learn to exercise their democratic rights.
  
He was referred to by local media as one of China's most popular peasant farmers due to his biting criticism against abuse of power and independent survey into at least 230 cases involving infringement upon the rights of his fellow farmers, including use of violence by tax collectors and issuing IOUs - instead of paying cash -- to grain growers. His complaints, often lodged to higher authorities in the provincial capital Zhengzhou and even in the nation's capital Beijing, cost dozens of local officials their jobs over the past decade.
  
Wang Xingfu, whose name means "felicity", was under media spotlight again after he became head of the villagers' affairs committee of Lucun village, Gaocun township in Yiyang county, a dream that has clung to him for more than 10 years.
  
"The election campaign was a test both to me and the government," Wang said in an interview with Xinhua, "a test to see whether I'm really favored by the locals and whether the local government administers by law."
  
An avid campaigner, Wang won 1,250 out of the total 1,525 ballots in the 1999 election, but was not given the top job in the village because some officials with the township government feared he might make more trouble for them at that post.
  
Wang petitioned as usual and worked even harder to correct local governance mistakes.
  
His success in this year's election, as Wang put it, was "a victory of democracy and the rule of law".
  
"We elect those who can do concrete jobs for the villagers," said Wang Qingshang, who voted for Wang as he had promised to repair the village roads, pipes in drinking water and renovate the ramshackle school buildings, the three biggest headaches for the locals.
  
Which mirrors the will of the rural voters, who are casting their ballots more seriously, knowing that who is to stand out will make a difference.
  
In the recent round of grassroot-level election that swept across 300,000 villages in 18 Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, many activists who have no official background but are the vanguard of public opinions have shown their rising influence and popularity to take posts as villagers' affairs committee, a self-ruled peasant farmers' panel in China's vast rural areas.
  
Among them are petitioners, migrant workers as well as environment protection campaigners.
  
Tian Guirong, an active environmentalist who recalled 65 tons of discarded, waste battery from the villagers at her own expenses, was elected to the villagers' affairs committee of Fanling village, Hehe township in Xinxiang county.
  
Tian beat her contestants in the final election with promises to build an ecological village and offer clean air and drinking water to the villagers.
  
In China, a nation of about 680,000 rural villages with about 900 million farmers, functionaries to administrate village affairs have been directly elected by villagers since the law on villagers' affairs committee organization took effect in 1998.
  
According to the law, members of the villagers' affairs committee, the administrative body of a village, are elected by all villagers who have the right to vote from candidates nominated by them. After taking their position, the village head is responsible for the villagers and their supervision.
  
In Henan Province, home to about 70 million peasant farmers, 92 percent of the residents participated in elections at the grassroot level this year, and 35.1 percent of the newly elected village heads are not members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to the organization department of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee.
  
Sociologists and officials say the influence of activists in rural areas shows the power of democracy now that the central government has exempted all agricultural taxes and village heads are supposed to seek rapid economic growth and build a clean environment for the villagers rather than to collect fees and taxes as before.
  
"The outcome of the elections reflect a new trend," said Wen Bingyan, a civil affairs official who closely followed and guided the grassroots elections in central China's Henan Province since 1998. "That the farmers are exercising their democratic rights rather than going through formalities. They are free to vote for whomever they trust, and have the final say in deciding who is to take the top post in their own villages."

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2005)