There is a long tradition in Tower Hamlets that any election held here is accompanied by allegations of vote fraud. And so it is the case with yesterday’s events in Spitalfields and Banglatown.
While nothing can match the comedy of the general election when a large burkha-clad person with a suspiciously deep voice quickly legged it after being challenged as (s)he tried to vote in Poplar, there were still a couple of moments of high farce yesterday.
They have all been reported to the police and/or Returning Officer Kevan Collins. And all allegations are being made by Respect, which won the by-election, and against Labour supporters.
Concerned that Labour supporters might get up to dirty tricks, Respect placed polling agents with deep knowledge of the local area at the various polling stations. It was their job to spot suspected malpractice.
The first was at a polling station at Christ Church Primary School. There, according to Respect, a Bengali man giving the correct name for a someone registered at a flat in Chicksand House was challenged by a polling agent who knew that the named property was actually let to white students. The presiding officer then asked the man to name the other occupants of the flat. He could not and not only that, he admitted he did not live there himself! However, because he had already marked his ballot paper and because his name was on the electoral register, the presiding officer felt unable to invalidate his vote. I’m not clear whether the presiding officer asked for verification of the man’s name.
The second incident was described by Respect’s Rob Hoveman in an email sent to Mr Collins yesterday:
We are very concerned about attempted personation at Osmani polling station where an individual gave an address as XXX Arthur Deakin House. Fortunately, [Respect’s winning candidate] Fozol Miah was aware that this is the address of his niece and challenged the individual. He was not given a ballot paper and left the area with some others quickly. Our concern is obviously that this may not be an isolated incident and that there may be a concerted attempt to corrupt the election. Is there anything that can be done to deter this?
The third incident at Canon Barnett Primary School polling station had a Keystone Cops flavour to it. When a man purporting to be a Mr Uddin of Brune House came to collect his ballot paper, the Respect polling agent looked at him and said, “I know Mr Uddin; you’re not him.” The imposter tried to scarper, but was detained under a “citizen’s arrest” by some Respect supporters. They then “escorted” him back to the party’s HQ and took a statement from him while they waited for the police to arrive. When the police did finally turn up – some 30 minutes later, I’m told – their concern was not whether the man had breached election law, but whether he had been unlawfully detained and kidnapped!
Respect’s supporters should, of course, have allowed the presiding officer handle the matter, but I suppose that in Tower Hamlets we’re used to the law of the jungle and their reaction was perhaps understandable. When the situation calmed, Respect say they offered the police the man’s statement, but the officers declined to take it. I expect it will now be passed on to the police through more formal channels. I understand that the statement names the man who put him up to the attempted fraud and that he was going to vote for Labour’s Abdul Alim. For the avoidance of doubt, Alim was not named in the statement.
Clearly, if Tower Hamlets council and the Met Police are serious about clamping down on electoral fraud, they will want to fully investigate these incidents. If they don’t – and the suspicion is that they won’t because such fraud is considered a “victimless crime” that costs money to examine – what message does that send out?
As an aside, there were also some interesting developments on the postal voting front in this by-election. As of Tuesday, according to Respect, some 500 postal ballots had been sent in and of those the council’s new electronic signature checking systems had rejected a huge 20 per cent. Another 137 postal votes came in after Tuesday, but the council has so far been unable to say how many of those were rejected.
Now, either the system itself needs examining, or people need to remember what signatures they actually use, or there was attempted electoral fraud on a relatively large scale. Remember that the turnout was barely 1,500…
20% is far too high a percentage for vote fraud for postal votes and requires investigation and appropriate action.
My personal view is that the postal votes system should be withdrawn in Tower Hamlets until such time that it can be established that the system is:
EITHER not being abused
AND/OR suitable verifications which cannot be abused can be put in place.
I suspect they may have changed the system (again) but electtronic checking of signatures (and birthdays) is nothing new. The question to ask (that’s a hint, Ted) is who would the invalidated PVs have supported. That I think would be very interesting for you to know.
The incident you describe is a classic case of kidnap and voter intimidation. And who perpetrated that? Tells its own story.
Of course, there is an answer to all this. ID cards. I suspect Respect may have been against them? I wonder why.
Really? You think Respect’s opposition to ID cards was based on elections? It’s indicative of your political naivety or pure stupidity.
It’s not a “classic case” of anything. In fact, I would posit that nothing that goes on in Tower Hamlets vis-à-vis elections is a “classic case” of anything.
However, I concede the point that there may be a case for the Respect supporters in question to answer on charges of kidnap and/or false imprisonment.
But you appear to be playing a deflection game and completely ignore the allegations made by Respect and presented very clearly by Ted above.
It would appear to be a “classic case” of not being able to see the forest for the trees.
Respect accuse Labour of postal vote fraud?! You definitely have a scoop on your hands here Mr. Jeory.
Labour lost because their self confidence was shattered by their arrogantly ignorant approach to local politics and how they view and despise Bangladeshis and leftwing Eastenders. On election day Dec 16 former deputy leader Cllr Josh Peck who imposed Mr Abdul Alim was nowhere to be seen. She couldn’t have sunk lower but the party has been a sinking ship since Cllr Abbas took over Labour group in May 2010 from the notorious leader LootforOhid! Perhaps Alim would have one (without vote fraudsters) had Abbas and Rushanara Ali not been publicly campaigning for Alim in Mayor Rahman’s very East Wintert Garden!
Perhaps Alim would have won….but certainly not in Mayor Lutfur’s very own East Winter Garden! It’s a bit like asking Sir Robin Wales in Newham to cook you a curry because he is a public servant! Fools.
To the People of Spitalfields & Banglatown
I feel obliged to state that the incidents reported on this blog about attempts to commit electoral fraud are the first that either I (the Vice Chair), Mosabbir Ali (Chair) or Tarik Khan (Secretary) of the Spitalfields & Banglatown Branch Labour Party have heard about these serious allegations.
May I just say on behalf of all three of us that we completely condemn electoral fraud and had absolutely no knowledge of anyone either committing or planning to commit such fraud. If true – and it seems convincing enough to me – such persons were acting at their own initiative and we condemn their actions utterly. It is not about the winning but the taking part.
On that note may I also congratulate Fozul Miah on his victory and say for the record that this was a good natured campaign on all sides. Although terribly disappointed and saddened we respect the verdict of local voters in Spitalfields and Banglatown but are obviously deeply upset about the result and are extremely sorry to have lost the confidence of local electors.
I would like to add that we are listening to what people have been saying and totally understand their concerns and objections. In many cases we share their concerns and objections.
I can announce that the SPB Ward Party will be holding an Extraordinary Meeting in January to have an open and frank discussion about procedural/democratic problems within the local party with a view to doing whatever is necessary to resolve these problems and win back popular support. We also need to address the issue, as a local ward party, about so called “infiltration” and establish for ourselves how much of a problem this really is.
While anxious not to pre-empt those discussions I can say now that all three of us together with many of the members were extremely unhappy with the way the candidate was selected but once done had no option (after nominations had closed) but to rally behind our official candidate. That said, Abdul Alim is a good guy, an honest and professional man and would have made a great local councillor.
We are the Peoples’ Party. This is our place in politics and we are nothing without the support of the people. There are many, many good people in the Labour Party of Tower Hamlets who want desperately to serve the local community at this difficult time.
We intend to transform ourselves into a fully transparent, democratic and accountable organisation fit to serve and represent the local community.
It seems you are not the peoples party, and the local people have lost trust in Labour party. Time to get rid of some dead wood.
Very well said James.
We need to seriously debrief, evaluate, and be brave in recognising our failures although understandably, this can be difficult at times. But leadership is what the residents quiet rightly deserve and we have a duty to put aside individual quibbles and do what’s best for Tower Hamlets.
I sincerely hope our New Years Resolutions subscribe to such sentiments.
Well said James, it is healthier for Tower Hamlets Labour Party to reunite and re-engage with grass rooted councillors and members who supported Lutfur now rather than later. At the end of the day Rushanara became MP because of hard working local labour members who are now supporter of Lutfur; she was no on not even a Tower Hamlets residence but Tower Hamlets community looked upon her as Bangladeshi women. She is not local resident and was no body and it is almost certain she will loose next election but it will be too-late by than, her arrogance will take the party at the lowest level of popularity. All party needs doing are to send a simple apology letter to the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and other councillors for nasty conspiracy against them. This is what people of Tower Hamlets wants. Jim Fitzpatrick is well liked in Lutfur’s camp because of historic reasons and he might be able to reconcile.
Alim is a good guy and this is not his fault, he tried his best, the strategy was not right, Labour Party should not have allowed unpopular politicians (those people of Tower Hamlets can’t tolerate anymore) to campaign for Alim.
Lutfur – Ohid or not even any councillor had shown their face in the campaign, imagine what could happened if they went out openly. The Tower Hamlets Labour group is completely broken; rumour is Marc Francis has resigned today from Labour Shadow front bench accusing current Labour Leadership. I think Abbas, Josh and Rushnara will not give up until Labour become Lib Dem in Tower Hamlets, so is it not time for all members (like Marc) to bring them into account for failure. Anyway, Tower Hamlets Labour Party must monitor Group Leader, Deputy Leader and Rushanara’s activities before it’s too late.
It is every easy to check fraud voter only by checking council tax bill, are the all on tenancy agreement if not they are fraud
James Folgate is spot on but would Labour listen to him? Commendable but needs to be seen. Mr Folgate should have made this noise earlier immediately after the flawed selection process. The Mayor could well set up his own party if Labour don’t take him back but he can at least wipe off Opposition in strategic wards, esp with a £1,000,000,000 annual budget, why is he so desperate to join a party that wants you to move to Timbaktu to join hyenas?!
The problem is that Islamic fundamentalists have control of the council and the local Labour party
Unless the Labour party in Tower Hamlets discovers a backbone and expels as many of them as possible and starts again – we will forever be going round in circles.
*The Tower Hamlets Labour group is completely broken; rumour is Marc Francis has resigned today from Labour Shadow front bench accusing current Labour Leadership.*
Ted is there any truth in this allegation by Ash. If so it could be the beginning of the end for Labour.
I agree with Fighting4EdMiliband – why Mayor and his colleague are not going with plan to set up own party and destroy those who wanted to chop of his hands, legs and shoulder politically.
The community will be very upset if Lutfur/Ohid and them work with Abbas/Josh and Rushanara again.
Ted why don’t you confirm whether Marc has resigned or not? You normally get Labour group message instantly; email went to all labour councillors so why are you
silent? I know you don’t want to embarrass your friends but Trial by Jeory would have lead page yesterday if Lutfur was the opposition leader, wake up Ted and illustrate some pale journalism.
Verdi, which Labour councillors brave enough to do that? Have the men in Labour group any courage or are they also insecure like Cllr Peter Golds, not going far enough to mark which ones are ‘fundamentalists’?! Take for example the insecure chameleons Cllr Abdul Asad and Cllr Abdal Ullah. Would you call them fundamentalists because we used to see them clean Lutfur’s boots in return for paid position?!!
There are no fundamentalists in Tower Hamets Labour Party and if there are they why is the party still taking their membership fees? Surely, it must pay for some salaries! Let’s ask Cllrs Abbas, Saunders and Peck to publish their names by (set a date) so that the party is cleaned up and Lab members can select future candidates from an uncontaminated list!
It’s all very well and good saying Labour Party members should be able to select their own candidates but it’s not going to happen so why repeatedly fall back on that ideal? You know full well that if that were to happen THLP would end up with people who were unable to read, write, speak publicly analyse etc. There are a few people like that at the moment the difference being they’re a) in strategically useful places and b) represent the ‘old guard’.
If you’re going to criticise people you ought to apply the same rules to everyone. Why is it that Bengali Cllrs are repeatedly singled out as ‘chameleons’ for being ambitious? Aren’t they allowed to be ambitious? Cllr Ullah and Cllr Khan often face that sort of criticism on this blog * not alwyas by you. Khan being called a creature of Josh and Ullah an opportunist. They are both politicians and as such are prone to furthering their own political careers… There are plenty of non Bengali activists/ Cllrs who are planning to descend on Oldham, but I suppose that makes them careerists rather than opportunists? Please. Lets see who jumps into Marks grave shall we …
Milosh, Are you suggesting that when members chose councillor candidates in the past that they were all or mostly illiterate in the use of the Queen’s language? Nobody is singling out Bengali cllrs, they just happen to be Bengali and in power when criticised, though Ted may appear to be less critical of non Bengali cllrs. That argument is flawed because he tends to single out Cllr Marc Francis because of his perceived links to the Lutfur Rahman, so I guess Ted is selectively critical. If you feel so strongly about specific non Bengali cllrs you should talk about them. But to assume we are all only critical of Bengali cllrs is wrong. You cannot blame a cllr for something because they eat fish and chips more than curry and rice or if they are immune from faults, eg Cllr Denise Jones! And why are you feeling so insecure? If you don’t like us being critical of Bengali cllrs you can always ask them to find somewhere else to do their politics and leave us constituents alone in peace, meaning not rinsing our tax system. You can tell your friends Cllrs Khan and Ullah to do the same if they can’t take the heat…