Party expels local senior official over vote-rigging scandal

A senior official in central Hunan Province has been fired and expelled from the Communist Party over a massive vote-buying scandal, the Party's anti-corruption body said on Thursday.

The Party's discipline commission said Tong Mingqian failed to take "timely and effective measures" in the city of Hengyang to address reports of bribery in the city legislature's selection of provincial lawmakers.

The scandal "inflicts great losses to the interests of the Party, country and the people, and leaves a harmful political and social impact," the commission said in an announcement on its website. It said Tong's case had been handed over to judicial authorities.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate is to investigate Tong for "neglecting his duty," Xinhua news agency said yesterday.

The SPP has put Tong under "compulsory measures" during the investigation.

According to China's criminal procedure law, compulsory measures refer to release on bail, residential surveillance and arrest. The SPP statement did not say which compulsory measure was imposed on Tong.

On December 28 Hengyang dismissed most members of its legislature after they were found to have taken millions of dollars in bribes.

At the time of his dismissal, Tong was vice-chairman of an advisory body to Hunan Province's legislature. When he was Hengyang's Party boss he oversaw the appointment of municipal representatives to the provincial legislative body, which city lawmakers decide by voting.

Provincial authorities disqualified 56 delegates from Hengyang who were found to have paid 110 million yuan (US$18 million) in bribes to gain entry to the provincial body.

Authorities in Hengyang dismissed 512 lawmakers for accepting bribes, while another six quit, making up the bulk of its 529-member legislature.