477 punished for 2011 electoral fraud

Nearly 500 people in Sichuan province have been imprisoned or given administrative penalties for electoral fraud in 2011.

The 477 people - the majority of them Communist Party of China members and officials - participated in bribery that determined an election for standing members of the Nanchong city committee of the CPC before the first plenary session of the fifth CPC Nanchong city committee in Sichuan on Oct 19, 2011, according to a statement of the Sichuan CPC provincial committee on Tuesday.

An investigation that began in the second half of last year found that 16 officials offered bribes, another 227 facilitated the bribes, 230 officials accepted bribes, and four neglected their duties.