Pendle investigates claims of postal vote fraud

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Pendle investigates claims of postal vote fraud

By Mark Pack | Thu 30th August 2012 - 6:37 pm

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News via the BBC:

The council’s chief executive Stephen Barnes had written a letter to the Electoral Commission last year, saying allegations and perceptions of malpractice around postal voting “are seriously undermining public confidence in the whole electoral process”.

In the letter, the council cited examples of probable malpractice and the difficulties in taking action…

The leader of the borough council’s Labour Group, Councillor Mohammad Iqbal, said his party had won seats from the Conservatives fairly, adding: “There isn’t a problem in Pendle”…

The panel, consisting of cross-party councillors and representatives, will gather evidence at five public hearings across the borough.

* Mark Pack is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.

Read more by Mark Pack or more about Mohammad Iqbal, pendle or postal voting.
This entry was posted in Election law and News.

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3 Comments

Peter Chivall 31st Aug '12 - 9:22am

It is very sad that questions of electoral fraud are so often associated with communities of South Asian origin. In Peterborough, 2 councillors and 2 ex-councillor, including 2 ex-Mayors, have been jailed in recent years in connection with electoral fraud. All of them were of South Asian origin but at least there was no party political bias: 2 of the 4 were Conservatives, and 2 of the 4 were Labour.
As LibDem Agent, I have had to issue very strict instructions to our candidates from Asian communities about handling postal vote applications and postal vote ballots.To date there have not been any complaints to me from any source about postal ballots.
Tony Greaves 31st Aug '12 - 3:12pm

Set up by a motion to the Annual Meeting from me…

Now in progress – have not yet checked on how it’s doing since returning to these shores.

Tony Greaves
Mark Pack 31st Aug '12 - 7:15pm

Good to hear that Tony! News on the progress (or a guest post from you about it) would be most welcome.