More than 500 lawmakers in central China’s Hunan Province have been disqualified, dismissed or resigned after being implicated in a bribery scandal, the provincial legislature announced yesterday, as the government steps up its war on graft.

Altogether 527 lawmakers cast their votes for provincial lawmakers during the first session of the 14th Hengyang City’s People’s Congress, the local legislative body, between December 28, 2012, and January 3, 2013, according to a statement issued by Hunan’s provincial legislative body.

Preliminary investigation found the 56 lawmakers elected to the provincial legislature offered bribes to 518 of the municipal lawmakers and another 68 staff members. The total amount of money involved exceeded 110 million yuan (US$18 million), the statement said.

The provincial legislature disqualified the 56 during a plenary meeting which concluded yesterday, while county-level legislative bodies in Hengyang accepted the resignations of the 512 who took bribes.

Another five provincial lawmakers who didn’t offer bribes were nonetheless dismissed for “serious dereliction of duty,” the statement said. Three municipal lawmakers who didn’t accept bribes resigned, also for “serious dereliction of duty.”

Another six municipal lawmakers who took bribes had already been transferred outside of the city and were no longer in their posts.

Tong Mingqian, then Party chief of Hengyang, was in charge of the election.

“Tong breached his duty as an official in charge and was directly responsible for this case,” the statement said.

On December 21, he was sacked from his new post as vice chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He has been under investigation by the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

The fraud, involving so many lawmakers and a large sums of money, is serious in nature and has a vile impact, the statement said. “This is a challenge to China’s system of people’s congress, socialist democracy, law and Party discipline,” it said, adding that those involved must be subject to strict scrutiny and harsh punishment, in line with the law and Party discipline.

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