Nearly 500 people in Sichuan province have been imprisoned or given administrative penalties for electoral fraud in 2011.

The 477 people－the majority of them Communist Party of China members and officials－participated in bribery that determined an election for standing members of the Nanchong city committee of the CPC before the first plenary session of the fifth CPC Nanchong city committee in Sichuan on Oct 19, 2011, according to a statement of the Sichuan CPC provincial committee on Tuesday.

An investigation that began in the second half of last year found that 16 officials offered bribes, another 227 facilitated the bribes, 230 officials accepted bribes, and four neglected their duties.

The money involved totaled 16.72 million yuan ($2.63 million), the statement said.

Yang Jianhua, former Party chief of Yilong county, was elected as a standing member of the Nanchong CPC city committee after using 800,000 yuan of public funds to bribe potential city committee members. He paid some of the bribes himself and had subordinates pay others, according to the provincial committee.

Yang was sentenced to 20 years in prison for offering and taking bribes and power abuse, while Liu Hongjian, then Nanchong's Party chief, was sentenced to three years for dereliction of duty.

Thirty-three of those involved have been expelled from the Party and public office, and their cases were transferred to judicial agencies.

Seventy-seven were stripped of their posts, and the rest received warnings, the statement said.