Official on trial for election fraud

A former government official in central China's Hunan province went on trial on Tuesday for his role in an electoral fraud.

Chen Shusheng, former secretary general of the Hengyang municipal government, was accused of embezzling public money to buy tickets when he, then governor of Zhengxiang District, took part in the election of the provincial legislature in December 2012, the people's court in the city of Lengshuijiang said in a statement.

A verdict is to be announced on another date as the case is complicated, it said.

On Dec. 28, 2013, Hunan provincial legislature disqualified 56 members for buying votes and announced that more than 500 lawmakers in the city of Hengyang had been disqualified, dismissed or had resigned.

An investigation has shown that the 56 provincial legislators offered 110 million yuan (18 million US dollars) in bribes to 518 municipal lawmakers and another 68 members of staff.

Fifty people have been indicted for the electoral fraud, the provincial procuratorate said on June 16.

Meanwhile, a total of 409 former officials have received disciplinary punishments for the fraud, local authorities said on May 9.