CHANGSHA - Two former government officials in central China's Hunan Province have been arrested and put under criminal investigation over an election scandal, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Zhou Chuzheng, former governor of Shigu District in the city of Hengyang and He Lufei, former director of the finance bureau in Leiyang City under Hengyang, were accused of buying votes to get them elected to the provincial legislature.

By Tuesday, a total of 60 people have been put under criminal investigation for disrupting the election of provincial lawmakers in Hengyang.

Many other people involved in the scandal are still under probes.

The scandal in Hengyang emerged on Dec. 28 when the provincial legislature disqualified 56 vote-buying provincial lawmakers and announced that more than 500 lawmakers in the city had been disqualified, dismissed or had resigned.

An investigation has shown that the 56 provincial legislators had offered 110 million yuan (18 million US dollars) in bribes to 518 municipal lawmakers and another 68 staff.