Nearly 500 people in China's Sichuan Province have been imprisoned or given administrative penalties for electoral fraud in 2011.
A total of 477 people, most of them Communist Party of China (CPC) members and officials, were involved in bribery that determined an election for standing members of the Nanchong municipal committee of the CPC in Sichuan on October 19, 2011, Xinhua news agency cited a CPC Sichuan provincial committee statement on Tuesday.
An investigation launched last year found 16 officials offered bribes, another 227 facilitated the bid, 230 officials took bribes, while four neglected their duties.
The money involved totalled 16.72 million yuan ($2.63 million), the statement said.
Yang Jianhua former Party chief of Yilong county was elected as a standing member of the CPC Nanchong municipal committee after using 800,000 yuan of public funds to bribe municipal committee members.
Yang was sentenced to 20 years in prison for offering and taking bribes and power abuse, while Liu Hongjian, then Nanchong's Party chief, was given three years for dereliction of duty.
According to the CPC Sichuan provincial committee, the number of people and the amount of bribes involved in the case constituted a grave violation of Party codes of conduct and laws.
Some officials have lost sight of Party principles and have such little respect for the law that they have been unable to resist the temptation of corruption, the statement said.
Party organisations' failure to educate, manage and supervise its members, meanwhile, have also indulged misconduct and corruption, the committee said.
The investigation and punishment proves the CPC's zero tolerance for graft and determination to run the Party strictly, according to the statement, describing the fights against corruption as a matter of "life and death".
