ALBERT WARNS "BRUM KHAN APPOINT AYOUB AGAIN"

06-05-2008

Birmingham’s Labour leader Sir Albert Bore is warning that the city’s credibility is at risk if Liberal Democrat councillor Ayoub Khan is re-appointed to the city’s cabinet. Khan claims he’s the victim of a smear campaign after being implicated by the Mirror newspaper in a postal voting scandal.

The paper alleged that Mohammed Afzal, who runs the Sixways hostel in Aston, broke electoral law by forcing residents to vote for Khan against their will (http://tinyurl.com/6f3see).

It’s a charge which Mr Afzal has vehemently denied.

Cllr Khan handed in a number of forms collected from Sixways residents to Birmingham's Elections Office, but The Mirror admits that it has no evidence linking him with any wrongdoing.

According to Khan, he’s the victim of an orchestrated smear campaign by the Labour party (see link here).

That’s not how Sir Albert sees it. He says: “The guy who runs the hostel is quoted in The Mirror saying that he’s a friend of Ayoub Khan, and that he was phoned up by someone who gave him postal voting applications – and who then collected them.

“He can’t remember who that person was and it may not have been Ayoub Khan, but we can only assume that the Liberal Democrats were associated with the postal votes from that hotel.

“Until the Liberal Democrats say who that was and can prove it wasn’t Ayoub Khan, I don’t see how he can be a member of the Cabinet.  For the sake of the integrity and the recibility of politics in Birmingham, I don’t see how his name can be put forward.”

Labour called for Khan’s resignation last month when an Election Court hearing evidence about last year’s Aston election called his evidence into question (see link here).

Bore dismissed any notion of a smear campaign: “Every time questions are asked about the Liberal Democrats behaviour at elections, they claim the Labour party are behind it. It’s nonsense.”

The Stirrer understands that Labour is also investigating allegations of personation (ie a voter pretending to be someone else) during the Aston ballot

There have also been suggestions that postal voting forms were collected from a house by an individual falsely claiming to be a Labour member.

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