My wife and I go back to her hometown for her uncles birthday. The day we go there is the day the village votes for their new leader... or mayor...chairman.. I’m not sure what the official title is. 

There were 2 people going for this position. One of the guys worked for the government already and according to my father in law this man could get things for the village. Things like new road and that sort of thing. The other was just a businessman who wanted this position so he could further his own agenda. (This is what I was told, but who knows) . Now here is where it gets a greasy....

The business man spend 15k usd on booze and smokes and was giving these things to all the villagers if they would vote for him. And seems lots of people took him up on this offer. The other guy just told people his credentials and who he knew and what he could do for the betterment of the village. Now fast forward to the vote..

the Voting took place in someone’s house in the village. Only one person was allowed in at a time to cast a vote. Sounds honest so far. There were 2 people from each camp who made sure each other never cheated. Ok. So everyone is outside of this house you know... basically girls comparing their children and grandkids and men smoking and spitting everywhere. It was fun time time just hanging out and drinking beer.

later that day the vote tally comes in..... the “honest” guy wins by 30 votes. Now I would guess there are only at the most 500 voters. So now shit gets real. The guy who losses threatened to kill the other guy. So there is a bit mess with those 2 but even regular voters are almost coming to blows over this. One of my wife’s mother’s freinds said her son would kill her if she votes for the honest guy.... apparently over a carton of smokes...wow. But it does not end there...

later her that night instead of doing a recount of the votes, the businessman said he wanted a complete redo.... a whole new vote lol. So the other guy agrees to this for some stupid reason. 

The next day day they vote again. Same song and dance as before but this time the businessman looses by 80 votes instead of 30..... so he’s fucking livid and starts cussing the whole village out in front of the voting house. And people were getting pissed. They were throwing beer bottles at the guy and he had to run to his car for safety. And he spun out of here and I don’t think he has came back lol. 

Things have cooled down now but for a minute there I thought someone was going to get killed, for real. That was my first taste of Chinese democracy..... it was very entertaining to watch lol..... from a safe distance of course.