It is Mr Gao Zhi Li's big day and he is nervous. The tall, bearded Manchurian is a candidate for the chairmanship of the Houshi village committee and polling is about to begin.
However, the odds are heavily stacked against this small farmer and father of two children. Firstly, Mr Gao is a member of an ethnic minority, which is heavily outnumbered in Houshi by the majority Han community. But even more ominous is the fact his rival for the village chair is the local Communist Party secretary, Mr Qin Ming Yan.
The two men gather in the courtyard of the village school in sub-zero temperatures. Houshi is a poor agriculture community in Dongfeng County in Jilin Province, north-east China. The average annual household income is $400.
The village has a population of 896 and Manchurian families occupy only five of the 294 households. But Manchu and Han live in harmony together.
The canvassing, voting, counting and declaration of winners in this village election will take place over three hours this morning. Apart from the two contestants for the chair, there are six candidates for four village committee seats.
It is only 9 a.m. but the voters have already gathered and are seated in the open air in front of a stage erected in the school courtyard. Of the 589 people in the village eligible to vote, 541 have turned out to exercise their franchise.
The children have a day off school and they eye the foreign journalists curiously. This is the first time the majority of the villagers have seen westerners in the flesh and there is as much interest in us as there is in the elections. One little girl approaches me and lightly strokes my face. She giggles and runs off again.
The candidates are introduced on stage by an election official. This is their first and only chance to address the villagers directly. Irish politicians take note - each speech lasts no more than three minutes.
The underdog, the non-party Mr Gao, is first to make his pitch. Standing with his great green army coat draped over his shoulders, he tells the villagers he will develop good relations with them. He will ensure they have a "rich future" and he promises to reduce the burden of the farmers.
"I guarantee the best interests of the village. I will establish an open system of finance," he promises.
As the local Communist Party secretary, Mr Qin is well known. A much sterner looking man than his rival, he reminds voters he has already done a lot for Houshi. He promises agricultural reform so that farmers will have higher incomes and better livelihoods in future. He says he will do all he can to promote democracy.
When all the candidates have finished, villagers are invited to ask questions. Only four take the opportunity to do so. One asks Mr Qin about the wisdom of holding the dual positions of village chair and local party secretary. He says he is capable of doing both jobs.
The election official then explains to the voters how democracy works. He has drawn on a blackboard a sample ballot paper with the candidate's names and, with a ruler, points out how it should be filled in. The illiterate in the village, an estimated 15 per cent, have nominated proxy voters to complete their forms.
At 10.30 a.m., the villagers are given their ballot papers and queue to go into one of the small classrooms to cast their votes in private. A local farmer, Mr Wang Hongzhi, welcomes the elections and says it is good to have a leader "picked by the masses".
The situation in Houshi has improved since the village elections first started, he says. Previously people did not have good houses and they wore patched clothes. Now many people have houses made from brick and their clothes are better.
Mr Wang says 10 people from the village make it to university every year, a sign that things have improved. He is happy enough with his own lot. Married, with a 20-year-old son, he farms one hectare of land and owns a mule, a cow and a horse.
As the votes are being counted Mr Gao and Mr Qin mix with their supporters. At 1 p.m. there is movement from the schoolhouse. The count is finished and an official walks out to the blackboard and writes up the result.
To everyone's surprise, the Manchurian has beaten the Communist Party secretary by 309 votes to 232. There is a buzz in the crowd. Mr Qin is clearly unhappy.
He is overheard by a Chinese journalist shouting obscenities about the victor and questioning the voting system. Local officials - who have been keeping close guard on the visiting journalists, to the point of not letting us roam freely in the village - intervene. They remind the loser to behave, that the eyes of the West are upon him. The proud Manchurian is invited to the stage and is declared the winner.
What unfolded last Friday is part of China's first experiment with democracy. Village elections are relatively new and they are controversial.
Though welcomed by many China watchers when they were first introduced on an experimental basis in 1988, and enshrined in law in 1998, doubts remain over whether they are a window dressing exercise, or a genuine attempt by the Communist Party to place power in the hands of the people. Eighty per cent of those elected Chair in Jilin's 10,080 villages are Communist Party members.
All of the 8,300,000 villages in China have held at least one round of elections.
In Houshi last Friday, Mr Gao promised in his victory speech to do his best for the people. He said he hoped he and the defeated local party secretary could work in harmony together for the good of the village.
But just as we are marvelling at this defeat for the communists in China - albeit at the lowest level - Mr Gao dropped his bombshell.
"When you are a leader of a village, it is good to be a member of a party. I am going to apply for membership of the Communist Party immediately".