Local official stands trial for electoral fraud

BEIJING - A local senior official accused of being involved in the biggest electoral fraud ever seen in China stood trial on Thursday on the charge of dereliction of duty.

The Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court heard in public the case of Tong Mingqian, former vice chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Tong was implicated in fraud involving more than 500 lawmakers in Hengyang City, Hunan between Dec. 28, 2012 and Jan. 3, 2013. Then Party chief of Hengyang, Tong was in charge of the local congressional election.

During the election, he received complaints that some candidates had offered bribes to buy votes but took no effective measures to stop the illegal practice, according to the prosecutors. They also accused him of failing to organize an investigation into other alleged violators, as he was required to do by law after the election.

Tong's acts inflicted great losses on the interests of the state and its people, the indictment said.

The fraud is record-making in terms of the number of people and the quantities of money involved. Preliminary investigation showed that 56 lawmakers from Hengyang bribed 518 fellow municipal lawmakers and 68 staff to be elected to the Hunan provincial people's congress. The amount of money involved in the bribery exceeded 110 million yuan (18 million US dollars).

Tong was sacked and expelled from the Communist Party of China in January.

The court said it will announce the verdict on another day.