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Judge condemns ‘massive, systemised and organised' postal voting fraud

5 April 2005

A high court judge ruled yesterday that there had been ‘widespread fraud’ surrounding the election of six Labour party councillors in Birmingham in last year’s local elections, as reported in The Guardian.

Richard Mawrey QC, sitting as an election commissioner, said he was satisfied vote-rigging had occurred in the run up to the June ballot before launching a scathing attack on the postal voting system, condemning the government for complacency in the face of fraud which would disgrace a ‘banana republic’.

Responding to the news, Stuart Craft, leader of the IWCA group on Oxford City Council, warned voters in Oxford to be careful with applications for postal votes, and ballot papers.

‘The IWCA normally provides voters with postal ballot application forms but we do not take them into the electoral registration office or handle completed ballots,’ said Cllr Craft.

‘I would hope that there hasn’t been any vote rigging going in Oxford but the system certainly seems open to abuse,’ he continued.

‘The Labour government have been too eager to boost turnout at elections by allowing postal voting with insufficient safeguards. We believe, however, that the best way to increase levels of voting is to give the electorate a real choice at the ballot box. It is no surprise that peope don’t bother to vote when they are faced with three main parties whose anti-working class policies are virtually the same.’

When the IWCA won seats in two Blackbird Leys wards last year the turnout went up to 29% compared to 12% in 2000 when the area was contested only by the main parties.

Mr Mawrey finished hearing the second of two petitions raised against the Birmingham councillors last month. The first petition was brought against the Bordesley Green ward representatives - Shafaq Ahmed, Shah Jahan and Ayaz Khan - by the People's Justice Party. The three men walked out of the hearing on the first day after Mr Mawrey refused an application for an adjournment to allow them further time to prepare their case.

The second petition was raised against three Aston representatives - Mohammed Islam, Muhammed Afzal and Mohammed Kazi - by local Liberal Democrat supporters.

All six councillors strenuously denied rigging the ballots and being improperly elected. During the trials, which were held at the Birmingham and Midland Institute and lasted four weeks, the court heard evidence of wholesale theft of votes in the city, with thousands of postal ballots being diverted to a ‘safe house’ where they were filled in on an ‘industrial scale’.

Petitioners accused the defendants of using forgery and deception to collect and amend thousands of votes. The petitioners also accused the city's returning officer and chief executive, Lin Homer, of failing to discharge her duties in accordance with electoral law.

In a statement, the Labour party said all six councillors had been suspended from the party. It confirmed that Mike Griffiths, who heads up the party's national organisation committee, had been appointed to oversee activities.

The hearings were viewed as test cases because of complaints about postal voting irregularities in other parts of the country. The ruling comes as record numbers of electors are applying for postal votes ahead of the general election.

A spokesperson for the Electoral Reform Society said: ‘We do not believe that electoral fraud is confined to Birmingham, to the Labour party or, most importantly, to particular communities. This is a problem that we believe may be widespread in this country.

‘We have seen cases recently in Blackburn, Guildford and Hackney involving people from very different backgrounds and each of the major parties. We dispute the view put about that there is little fraud because few people are being charged.’