China wraps up vote-buying scandal as former vice-governor of Liaoning stands trial
- Liu Qiang charged with taking bribes of US$1.5 million, disrupting elections
- Charges are the last chapter in a corruption scandal that erupted in 2011 and claimed six top officials
Top Chinese prosecutors have charged the last of the former high-level officials brought down in a massive legislative vote-buying scandal in the country’s northeast.
Liu Qiang, former vice-governor of Liaoning province, was charged with taking bribes of 10.6 million yuan (US$1.5 million) and disrupting elections, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate said on Thursday.
The charges are the last chapter in a corruption scandal that erupted in the province from 2011 and 2013 and claimed six top provincial officials, including former Liaoning Communist Party boss Wang Min, who was jailed for life last year.
The main charges against Liu relate to his election as vice-governor of Liaoning in 2013. Liu, who was the party chief of the city of Fushun, was overlooked for another top office in 2011 and prosecutors allege that he bribed his way into the vice-governorship two years later at the age of 49.
In such elections, the party nominates one or two people more than the number of positions available and then the members of the people’s congress of that administrative area vote for the candidates.
The party’s organisation department will work closely with the people’s congress to make sure the preferred nominees succeed but in rare cases the outsider prevails.