postal vote rigging by labour

[bill?]

a judicial investigation has been going on for a couple of weeks now, so why hasn't it been in the tabloids.
I've only seen reports of it in the Times, this is todays http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,173-1508859,00.html


apparently mr B Liar ask if the investigation could be postponed till after the election.

[Abb]

Would it be remiss of me to point out that the allegations of vote rigging relate entirely to Asian Muslims? Islam is well known for it's love of Democracy after all.

[gollum]

Would it be remiss of me to point out that the allegations of vote rigging relate entirely to Asian Muslims? Islam is well known for it's love of Democracy after all.

Probably :D

[Abb]

They hate the noises I make, as they hate the sound of the truth.

[Jay]

Silly that they were caught this time.

This type of shinnannigan has been going on since the introduction of ballots!

I shall think very carefully before voting!

[bill?]

it would seem a lot of the postal vote hijacking has occurred in asian areas, where in the past, these areas have had a very low turn out at the elections, and since the introduction of a postal vote for everyone (in certain areas) the party zealots have targeted these areas knowing the electorate wouldn't have voted, so wouldn't have known if someone had voted with their name.


so far about 55 labour people are suspected.

[Doro]

sorry Bill? I can't read it cos I'm not registered :(

[excalibur]

I have heard a lot of reports of this happening in areas where the BNP stood a chance of getting in.........so much for democracy

[Gypsy]

Police found 275 ballot papers in 'vote factory'
By Dominic Kennedy



POLICE stumbled on a “vote-forging factory” where six men sat surrounded by 275 ballot papers in a warehouse at midnight two days before an election, a court was told yesterday.
The middle-aged men, including Labour candidates, explained that they had come to the lonely industrial estate in darkness so that they could help disabled and illiterate people to vote. The ballots were confiscated by police but later delivered to the elections office and counted in a poll that gave Labour a narrow victory in all three seats for the Aston ward of Birmingham City Council.



An election petition claims that Labour bucked the national trend in June 2004 by taking first place in elections to England’s largest local authority because of a “massive electoral fraud” involving the misuse of postal voting.

During the campaign, police were told that Labour supporters were bribing people on inner-city main roads for their postal ballots, the court was told. A handwriting expert is said to have found evidence of fraud and forgery on hundreds of pages of polling documents.

Richard Mawrey, QC, sitting as election commissioner, began hearing evidence in a second petition seeking to overturn results in Birmingham. He has already heard a challenge to the victory of three Labour councillors in another inner-city ward, Bordesley Green. His judgment is expected at Easter.

A vivid picture of the “midnight flit” was painted by Ravi Sukul, counsel for the Aston petitioners, who are supporters of the defeated Liberal Democrat candidates. Mr Sukul said that the “mischief” formed part of a pattern of “criminal activity, corrupt practices and irregularities” by Labour.

The candidates and their organiser had been seen late at night leaving the Labour campaign office carrying bags into their car and driving to the warehouse. Police were alerted and two officers found Mohammed Islam, a candidate, just about to leave. “They became quite suspicious,” Mr Sukul said.

“You attend a deserted warehouse in the middle of the night: six Asian men sitting in a room by themselves at a grand table with 275 ballot papers on the table, and one about to leave. The amount of cloak-and-dagger inferences there are enough to develop the suspicions of the police officers.”

The Labour organiser told police that the men were checking ballot papers and envelopes to see whether they were filled in correctly before delivering them to the elections office. He said their purpose was to help disadvantaged electors to vote.

The judge intervened: “You would say, even if that story had been true, they had no right to do it?” Mr Sukul replied: “Absolutely.”

The police seized one ballot paper from an unsealed envelope, checked the name and address on the accompanying declaration of identity and visited the home. The occupant, fully dressed at 1.30am and apparently healthy, confirmed to police he was the voter who had placed a cross against the Labour Party box. “That scenario,” Mr Sukul said, “is fraught with some kind of suspicion. Something is not quite right.”

The hearing continues