Chinese netizens asked to vote “satisfied” in online poll or have voting rights cancelled

BEIJING - ‘Autocratic’ China appears to be conducting opinion polls just to appease its Id, with reports claiming that netizens were forced to say they were “satisfied” with at least half of the government departments in Putian city in the country’s Fujian province, or have their voting rights cancelled.

According to China Daily, the government of Putian conducted an online poll from December 1 to December 20 to find out whether the public were satisfied with its 79 departments.

However to the netizens’ astonishment, they found that they had to select “satisfied” or “agreeable” for at least half of the departments, because if they voted “dissatisfied” for a majority of the departments, a window would pop up on the official website, saying “Your voting does not meet the requirement”.

A micro-blogger reportedly wrote about the pop-up window on Monday and the news quickly spread over the Internet.

Meanwhile a local official admitted that the poll “does have some problems and we are trying to improve it”.

The official explained that the “50 percent requirement” is to protect the poll from being abused due to intense competition between departments. In earlier polls, some departments had organized staff members to vote “dissatisfied” about all the other departments, the paper said.

“But our original intention of canvassing public opinion was good. We just need to find a better way to do it and we are exploring that,” the official added.

This is not the first time that Chinese netizens have come across such a case. In November 2010, the government of Yongji county in Northeast China’s Jilin province reportedly provided only two options “satisfied” and “very satisfied” in an online poll. (ANI)