Postal Voting 1

BORE CALLS FOR POLICE POSTAL VOTING PROBE

17-04-2008

Birmingham’s Labour party is calling for a police investigation into the delivery of 200 postal vote applications and 150 voter registration forms yesterday by Liberal Democrat Councillor Ayoub Khan. He handed in the paperwork just an hour before the deadline for postal votes at this year’s local council elections.

Labour leader Sir Albert Bore believes an enquiry is essential because of previous skulduggery in Aston.

In 2006, Bore reported suspicions of postal voting fraud in the ward, which led to a successful prosecution.

Members of his own party were found to have rigged the ballot two years earlier, although an Electoral Commission recently dismissed allegations of malpractice against Labour Councillor Mohammed Afzal at last year's poll.

The QC who judged the case had harsh words for his Liberal Democrat rival Saeed Aehmed.

He also questioned the evidence presented by Aehmed’s chief witness - yes, Ayoub Khan, Birmingham’s Cabinet Member for Local Services and Community Safety – leading to calls for his dismissal (see link here)

There is no evidence Khan is guilty of any wrong doing in this instance but Bore argues that against the backdrop of the ward's troubled electoral history, it’s important to make enquiries sooner rather than later.

"In the circumstances, given what's happened in Aston in the past, when there are a large number of applications coming in to be processed at one time, the police should be investigating" he said.

"A similar set of circumstances came to light in the run up to the 2006 election and I submitted a detailed report to West Midlands Police as a result of which an individual was prosecuted for postal vote fraud."

The Stirrer has attempted to contact Ayoub Khan, but so far with no success. We will, of course, publish a response when we get one.

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