China’s vote-buying scandal: are laws passed by fraudulently elected legislators still valid?

The Chinese northeast province of ­Liaoning is facing an ­unprecedented legislative crisis in the aftermath of the dismissal of hundreds of lawmakers in a vote-buying scandal, sources say.

The Communist Party’s discipline watchdog in the province is also feeling the squeeze, having to draft in legions of personnel from other agencies to cope with the flood of corruption investigations.

“At least two disciplinary staff from my department have been temporarily transferred to work for them,” a mid-level official in Shenyang said, adding that his office was one of many across the province supplying personnel to help with the probes.

The turmoil follows a special meeting last month of the country’s top legislature at which the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress decided to expel 45 national legislators from Liaoning elected in 2013.

The committee also announced that 454 of Liaoning’s 612 lawmakers at the provincial level were dismissed for buying their way into the local legislature.

According to Xinhua, NPC Standing Committee chairman Zhang Dejiang told the meeting that the Liaoning electoral fraud “challenged the bottom line of the Chinese political system, and a zero-tolerance ­approach will be taken towards any offences in elections”.