Sino File | The Chinese vote-rigging scandals that raise the question: Why?

When 3,000 of China’s most influential people gathered at the Great Hall of the People in March 2013 for the pageant known as the National People’s Congress to approve a new set-up of state leadership, the world already knew Xi Jinping would be “elected” state president, Li Keqiang premier, Zhang Dejiang parliamentary chief, etc.

While the NPC is constitutionally charged with as much power as its ilk in the West, China’s communist authoritarian rule ensures the party decides everything, and parliament rubber-stamps such decisions.

But however ceremonial, seats in parliament are still highly sought-after in a corrupt political market, as evidenced by a massive recent vote-rigging scandal.

The purge has also seen 523 deputies in the provincial legislature resign or be disqualified, including 38 of 62 members of its standing committee.