YAQOOB WINS BACKING FOR POSTAL VOTE BAN

24-07-2008

Birmingham councillor Salma Yaqoob is claiming the support of all three main parties in the city in her bid to have postal voting scrapped. She’ll be arguing the case with Justice Minister Jack Straw today.

Yaqoob said in April that the relaxation in the postal voting rules – designed to encourage more people to vote – was encouraging corruption.

Her comments came after it was revealed that Liberal Democrat councillor Ayoub Khan delivered 200 postal voting applications to the city’s elections office – along with 150 voter registration forms (see link here).

The greatest objections have traditionally come from Labour - which was notably involved in postal voting fraud in 2004 - but Yaqoob reckons Sir Albert Bore is now supporting her campaign, along with Conservative leader Mike Whitby and his Lib Dem coalition partner Paul Tilsley.

"We've got a first draft of the letter that we're sending to the government, and it's big breakthrough to get cross party support" she said.

The Sparkhill councillor argues that postal voting often makes it more difficult for women to cast a vote in accordance with their own wishes – especially in traditional Pakistani Muslim families.

She’s also been pressing the case for a reversal of the current rules through her membership of a government taskforce aimed at encouraging greater representation for ethnic minority women.

That group is meeting Jack Straw today, and Yaqoob has forced the issue on the agenda.

"It's taken some time but I think we're finally persuading people to listen to what we're saying and take notice", she said.

DISCUSS THIS ON THE STIRRER FORUM