SHENYANG, April 1 -- Forty-one people who had been involved in election fraud in northeast China's Liaoning Province have been sentenced, Liaoning provincial government said in a statement Saturday.

They stood trial in 15 intermediate courts in Liaoning from March 28 to 30, and were handed various prison terms, the statement said.

According to the statement, these people bribed voters in the election of deputies to the National People's Congress.

Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said in September last year that the electoral bribery in Liaoning was the first of its kind to take place at the provincial level since the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. It seriously violated the Party's discipline, state laws and rules.