According to the online portal of the Shanghai-based the sacked provincial delegates from Hengyang included: Chen Shusheng, the secretary general of the city government; Chen Susheng, the city transport director; Liu Yunkui, the city tax chief; Yang Lihui, the human resources and social welfare director; and Li Hongfang, the electric power chief.

The dismissed delegates also included educators and businesspeople from a wide range of industries, including farming, cars, health care, mining, drugs and property.

Hengyang, with a population of more than seven million, is the second-largest city in the central province.

Zhang Guo, a lawyer based in the provincial capital Changsha, said that officials were prepared to pay handsomely to secure seats on provincial legislatures, even though they had little real authority and served largely as a rubber stamp for measures handed down by the Communist Party.

"Government officials with seats in congress, especially in the provincial congress, often receive faster promotion," Zhang said. "Business people crave the title as well.

"With 'delegate of the People's Congress' on a name card, they can show off that they have political connections and be given protection by the authorities," he said, noting that the police cannot arrest a delegate without permission from the people's congress.

Zhang Ming, a political science professor at Renmin University, said every province had similar vote-buying issues. He said he expected that the Hengyang investigation would be a prelude to a broader reform push by Beijing.

"This is unprecedented and the decision was certainly not made at a provincial level," Zhang Ming said. "I suspect that a national reform of people's congress elections will be launched. With the exposure of the Hengyang scandal, the top levels may try to send a signal."