The Institute on Rural Affairs of Central China Normal University. In Changsha, they observed the training of 158 county and municipal election officials on electoral procedures and data-gathering system. This province-wide training, the first ever in China, was supported partially by The Carter Center. In January 1999, a Carter Center delegation became the first international group to observe township elections, in Chongqing municipality of southwest China. Until then, the Chinese government allowed international delegations to observe only village elections.
Villages operate independently from China's administration.
Townships, however, are the first stage of formal government from which China ultimately chooses all of its legislators through future, indirect elections. From June-September 1999, in cooperation with the Hunan Department of Civil Affairs and Changsha Institute of Civil Affairs, the Center sponsored an independent data verification project in 120 villages in 40 counties in Hunan where computers are installed. A total of 124 students and teachers from Changsha Institute of Civil Affairs participated in the sampling survey. In late September, the delegation worked with a Time-Warner news tour to observe a villager committee election in Liujiachang Village, Xiantao City, Hubei Province. The Carter Center also sponsored training for election officials in Baoding Municipality, Hebei Province.