BEIJING - The Party's discipline watchdogs and personnel authorities have increased their supervision of ongoing elections within local Party organs, a senior official said at a news conference on Monday.

Candidates seeking positions within local Party committees who are found to have attempted to lobby or bribe voters will invite severe punishment, said Zhang Jinan, deputy chief of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and member of the Standing Committee of the CPC's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection . Zhang was speaking at a news conference jointly held by the two departments.

Individuals will be punished if wrongdoing is discovered, even if the discovery happens after the guilty person has taken office, he said. And people could be in line for a variety of disciplinary chastisements including demotion, forced resignation or dismissal.

Those found bribing voters will be referred to prosecutors, he said. And those who help others by lobbying or by bribing voters on their behalf will face the same punishments.

Zhang also warned that attempts to sell or buy a position will be punished and any such appointments will be abolished.

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From this year to the middle of next year, Party leaderships at the provincial, city, county and township levels will be reshuffled via a succession of nominations and elections. Reshuffles in local governments, people's congresses and political advisory bodies are also under way.

As of now, elections for township-level Party committees have essentially finished in seven provinces and autonomous regions and were not tainted by any report of corruption, according to Zhang.

The latest round of reshuffles have been characterized by more aggressive supervision than is usually seen and a host of preventive education campaigns aimed at ensuring fair play, observers have said.

"The supervision measures have been fully implemented in the elections," said Zhang. "The supervision through the established mechanisms, the public as well as the Party organizations will form an overall and comprehensive monitoring network."

Candidates seeking city- and county-level Party chief positions will undergo reviews of their work records and those who fail to pass the evaluation will be disqualified, he said.

Moreover, local Party personnel authorities will publicize the developments of the reshuffles and solicit scrutiny from the public and the media. People are being encouraged to report any suspected misconduct via a special hotline or by sending a text message to a designated information system, Zhang added.

Party leaders across the country have been debriefed on 14 cases in which officials were punished for violations of personnel discipline.

The cases were compiled into a brochure and sent to local Party organs by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee in January as part of a nationwide campaign to educate candidates about the types of misconduct that must be avoided during the reshuffles.

Zhang revealed two recent cases that have been circulated within the Party.

Zhang Bingsheng, former mayor of Taiyuan, capital of North China's Shanxi province, was removed from his posts as the city's mayor and its deputy Party chief on Feb 18 and given a serious Party warning for disturbing local elections.

Prior to and during the annual session of the provincial people's congress in January, Zhang Bingsheng felt dissatisfied about not being listed as a candidate for vice-governor and asked the then deputy secretary-general of the Taiyuan government, a man surnamed Cui, to send anonymous text messages to dozens of congress deputies soliciting support, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Cui has also been punished for participating in election disturbance.

In another case, an official surnamed Yan, from Xupu county in Central China's Hunan province, was expelled from the Party last year and the election results were nullified after he was found to have bribed five voters during a session of the local legislature.