DHAKA: A senior Chinese official has been sacked in relation to a major electoral fraud scandal.

The Communist Party’s discipline watchdog said, reports the BBC.

Tong Mingqian, a Hunan official, was negligent and failed to handle the cases of bribery, the watchdog said.

More than 500 lawmakers in Hunan resigned last week after it emerged they had accepted bribes to elect provincial parliament members.

President Xi Jinping has vowed to fight corruption in the Communist Party.

Tong Mingqian was party chief of Hengyang City in Hunan when the provincial elections took place. At the time of his dismissal, he was deputy head of Hunan`s parliamentary advisory body.

Mr Tong ‘did not properly carry out his duties, and did not take timely and effective measures to investigate and handle cases of bribery exposed before and after the election’, the watchdog said in a statement.

This led to ‘serious cases of bribery’ that ‘inflicted significant damage to the interests of the party, country and the people’, it added.

BDST: 1725 HRS, JAN 02, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor