A Chinese court has sentenced the ex-Communist Party chief of a rust-belt province that had been hit by massive electoral fraud to life imprisonment for bribery.

The official People’s Daily newspaper says Wang Min, the former party leader of Liaoning province, was sentenced on Friday.

State media say Wang’s negligence was “responsible for serious election fraud including vote buying.”

Allegations of electoral fraud led to the removal of many of the Liaoning legislature’s nearly 600 members in September last year.

The legislature nominally oversees the province, though all key decisions are made by the ruling Communist Party.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made fighting corruption a hallmark of his administration in an effort to bolster his legitimacy.