The investigations are piling up in Tower Hamlets. Today, The Times reported on its front page that:
Britain’s first directly elected Muslim mayor has been accused in the High Court of involvement in electoral fraud and illegally smearing an opponent.
Groups of people were paid to gather outside polling stations and persuade voters to back Lutfur Rahman on election day last month in Tower Hamlets, east London, an election petition claims.
The mayor’s supporters are accused of canvassing inside polling stations and accompanying voters to booths where they left election material urging people to vote for him, according to the petition.
Mr Rahman, who was born in Bangladesh, or his team cast postal and other votes in the names of people who were not entitled to be on the electoral roll, and acquired voting papers that they completed in favour of the mayor, the documents claim. If proven, the actions would be against electoral law.
The court documents allege that corrupt or illegal practices were so prevalent that they affected the result of the election. Mr Rahman, an independent social democrat, was the first directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2010, winning 52 per cent of the vote. Last month he won re-election in a closer contest, where he received 43 per cent of first-preference votes but beat Labour by 37,000 to 34,000 when second preferences were included.
If the petition is successful, the mayor faces a rerun of the poll. He could be banned from holding office if the High Court finds evidence of electoral mispractice by him. His agent condemned the petition as a waste of time and money. Gerald Shamash, the Labour party’s national solicitor, has been hired by the petitioners, a cross-party selection of local voters.
The petition claims that the Labour mayoral candidate, John Biggs, was wrongly smeared as a racist during the campaign. Deliberately making false statements about an opponent’s character is against election law. Mr Biggs, who is white, was accused of racism for saying that Mr Rahman’s primary focus was the Bangladeshi community.
The Labour candidate, a senior member of the London Assembly and former leader of Tower Hamlets council, said last night: “I was distressed by the accusations, which have no foundation. They were part of a cynical campaign to try to polarise community opinion.”
John Williams, the returning officer for the mayoral election, is also named on the petition in relation to separate allegations. The complainants blame him or his officials for allegedly letting Mr Rahman’s supporters enter polling stations, where they are accused of canvassing voters, accompanying them into polling booths and leaving campaign material around the booths.
It is alleged that the count was impeded by the large number of Mr Rahman’s supporters who attended.
Mr Williams said that the toughest measures were put in place at the election. He said that 84 allegations were passed to police. In most cases no evidence was found but eight were still under investigation.
The petitioners are Andy Erlam, an anti-corruption candidate, Debbie Simone, a Labour candidate who lost her seat by 28 votes, Azmel Hussain, a Labour supporter, and Angela Moffat, a Ukip supporter. The High Court is being asked to break the seals of the ballot boxes to check that votes were correctly cast and counted. A source said that Labour was not party to the petition but did not oppose it.
Mr Rahman’s agent, Alibor Choudhury, said: “All candidates in the mayoral election accept the results. The returning officer and the police pursue all allegations and complaints reported to them. This petition challenging the results does not raise any new issues or evidence.”
The court documents can be read in detail here:
On Iain Dale’s LBC radio show tonight, John Biggs said he supported the petition. Peter Golds, the Tory opposition leader, has made a small contribution to the petition’s legal fighting fund.
The petition has now been served on the Mayor, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Returning Officer; the petitioner’s must now apply to the court to fix a date with an election judge within 28 days.
If a hearing is granted, the first thing that will be asked for, as I understand it, is a recount and new scrutiny over the vote.
Again as I understand it, the allegations of corrupt electoral practices also apply to Lutfur’s agent, Alibor Choudhury. If proved against Lutfur himself, he faces being removed from office. If only against Alibor, then we face a rerun of the election. Alibor and Lutfur strongly deny any corrupt practices.
The other interesting deadline looming is the submission of election expenses by the various parties on June 26. During the campaign, Labour raised collective eyebrows about how well funded Lutfur’s machine was. But I’m sure Lutfur’s submission will suggest his expenditure was within the limits.
This is going to be a busy month for Lutfur and Tower Hamlets. The by election in Blackwall and Cubitt Town is preoccupying the political parties, but there are also various investigations that have the potential to build a head of steam, or running out of puff.
Here are just the ones I can think of:
- Election petition
- various criminal investigations into alleged electoral fraud
- complaints to the police about using ‘fake’ addresses on nomination forms (thoroughly recommend this piece by Andrew Gilligan on Sunday, which refers to Kabir Ahmed, among others)
- Review by Electoral Commission into the May 22 counting shambles
- Interim or final report by the PwC auditors ordered in by Eric Pickles last month (deadline June 30)
- Criminal investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office into the so-called Panorama “whistleblower”
Arch-villain or superhero? Lex Luther or SuperRahman? Take your pick.
If anyone spots orders for Teflon and Kryptonite in the next set of Tower Hamlets supplier payments, you’ll know why.
History will have to record how disgraceful the Labour and its Tory allies have been. During the elections when they tried to pander to white voters by making them hate Lutfur for his support of Bengalis no one cared about race politics. Soon as they realise it failed to get them the votes, it becomes a basis to void elections. Election day Labour are almost elected at how the day wen (check tweets for proof) but post results the election suddenly became null and void.
This is really silly considering the high turn out was considered the magic bullet to beating Lutfur, and election day all the messages put out by Labour was positive because they knew there was indeed a huge turn out. But when it turned out that the numbers were for Lutfur and not Labour, high turn out is no longer something to celebrate, but a sign of intimidation due to high numbers of Asian men out that day.
This is really embarrassing. Mark my words, you people are making a martyr of a mediocre politician by hounding him in this way.
How many times will Peter Gold cry about voter fraud and how many times will investigations prove ‘no case to answer’. How many investigations will you instigate only for nothing to be found? I’m guessing Eric Pickles would be accused of being in Lutfur’s pocket after PWC find nothing, just like the Met and electoral commission are accused of being soft on Lutfur for finding nothing. Gloating about instigating this really isn’t wise Ted, because it discredits you and Gilligan et al, and you will soon be considered the Boys who cry wolf.
I can only speak for myself but I canvassed a lot and I never went round trying to ‘pander to white voters by making them hate Lutfur for his support of Bengalis’ – total bullsh*t
Instead I would ask them, “Who do you think will move the borough forward, if you imagine 4 years time and 8 years time, who will bring the borough to the best place, John or Lutfur?” – that’s a simple, engaging angle.
I don’t think we used race politics although the campaign did become very racial (I wonder why?!!) and looking at the ways the votes were cast was frankly upsetting. So many residents voted cross party, along racial lines, it was horrendous to see and very worrying too.
“Who do you think will move the borough forward?”
“Lutfur”
“What about John Biggs?”
“He would have moved the borough backward 10 years”
Man on the Clapham Omnibus – totally agree with you.
Mr. Biggs led the Council many years ago and his time in office wasn’t the greatest! And what has he done as a GLA member for all these years?? Also he wanted to carry on doing the GLA job as well as become Mayor I’ve been told!
Have you actually tried to research what he’s done at City Hall? Start looking at Bow Roundabout cycle deaths, for example.
Re two jobs, he didn’t want to carry on with both roles: he would have liked to have quit as a gla member immediately but was told that would cause a by election at a cost of some £1m. He would therefore have waited a year until a by election could have been held in general election day.
You could have read all this before, of course. If you’d have been bothered.
I’m beginning to think you’re just a little troll on this site as well. Do please up the quality of your comments or wave goodbye.
@A nice person – you don’t think it was racial at all then when your candidate said “he is interested in only serving the interests of one community, the bengali community”. He started this whole thing off.
I guess when you have friends in high places and the neocon right wing media on your side you can cry wolf all day and it will be taken seriously.
The sad thing about the Times report was that it had to mention that he was ‘Muslim’. I can’t find what the relevance it has to the election as it never associates religious affiliation with any other politicians or pedophiles weather they be from’Jewish’ ‘Christian’ or from any other faith.
Never heard Times mention what religion the disgraced ex Lib dem MP Handcock was from or any other disgraced politicians who were convicted for expenses claim.
This just shows even if the Tower Hamlets Mayor was whiter than white the sore losers and their right wing allies will still try and accuse him of false allegation just to waste public money, but what they don’t realise the more they attack him the more his supported increase.
ChunkyPandey, was going to say exactly the same thing!! Why use the term “Muslim” when they refer to him? They don’t say “Muslim MP Rushnara Ali”.
Also why is it that when mentioning others such as Mr. Peter Golds, his religion is never mentioned (I think his Jewish or a freemason). Even with Mr.Peck or Ms. Saunders – still no mention of their religion.
This is basically the typical scaremongering tactics of “journalists” such as Jeory and Gilligan who only seek to increase the fear of Islam in people.
As a proud Quaker, I feel this is totally wrong and feel for my Muslim colleagues.
I suspect it was used because the petition is in part based on false accusations of Islamophobia.
I wouldn’t have used that headline.
Ted, you seem so excited that all of your efforts are coming together to oust the only brown skinned Muslim elected Mayor. I bet you cant sleep at night with excitement knowing that your nightmare of being proven wrong time after time may come to an end with a politically motivated judicial decision to overturn the election results thereby sticking two fingers at the electorates of TH who have spoken clearly at the polls.
Only problem for you Ted is the small matter of producing irrefutable and compelling evidence to back up all of these claims / allegations.
Also what do you think will happen if and when such a rogue judgement is made that calls for fresh elections in the borough? Do you really think the community will just sit back and accept this injustice and allow the democratic mandate of large swathes of voters to be disrespected simply because sore losers and their right wing media pals can’t accept defeat or respect the will of voters?
I fear you and other right wing, irresponsible and biassed journalists are playing with fire and stoking up further community tensions in an already polarised borough. We have already heard of the despicable murder of an Arab Muslim women yestoday and God knows how many more Islamaphobic attacks are likely to be faced by the Muslim communities by hate filled / sensationalised reporting by people like you, Gilligan, Ware and Daily Fail / LBC and co.
What price do the Muslim / Bangladeshi community need to pay for making the mistake of electing someone of their choice?
Nothing new. Lutfur has faced all this and much worse before. If he was dodgy, he would have been found out long time ago. He is squeaky clean.
Ted Jeory himself reported that there was a festival atmosphere on election day. There was no voter intimidation. There was no fraud.
Lutfur won fair and square. This petition is just another opportunity to get this confirmed.
Nice Person…you may have been campaigning fairly without any racial prejudice but not all of the Labour / Tories / UKIP did and it is therefore unfair to blame this and the racial polarisation of the borough only on LR / THF party.
What I find difficult to comprehend is how sore Labour / Tory supporters can on one hand cry foul about the turn out and tight margin by which LR was elected and then fully accept the verdict when they or their party candidates got elected by the same turn out and fine margins in the local elections in which many Labour candidates won by a handful of votes?
Isn’t it strange that while LR got majority of Mayoral votes, Labour actually got majority of the local / European election votes by the same group of voters? What this proves is that most voters were very clever and astute as to how they went to cast their votes. They didn’t just go along and vote along racial lines rather made a conscious / tactical decision as to who they wanted as Mayor and who they wanted as their local and European representative.
Many Labour supporters / activists we know (as documented by Ted) did want to have their cake and eat it (by which they tactically voted to ensure LR gets elected as Mayor and Labour Cllrs as local ward reps). Based on this how on earth and by what kind of logic can Labour / Tories now argue that the election turn and vote casting was unfair and suspicious? You either accept the full results / verdicts of the electorate or you don’t …you can’t just cherry pick the election results that suits you or went in your favour while rejecting the rest that didn’t go your way.
Labour leaders like Gibbs can’t therefore post articles claiming they have accepted the verdict and have taken stock of their defeat while behind the scenes they are busy plotting their next move and fully supporting this kind of eronious petition based on such little evidence / merit.
What hypocrisy and double standards!! Then again why should we be surprised given that this is typical infantile behaviour and attitude we have seen time and time again in this borough by the defeated forces?
Like I said, the anti-Lutfur camp seem very disinterested in fair play and are obsessed with beating Lutfur BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
An embarrassing lack of sportsmanship on the part of Saunders, Golds and other loonies.
Some would argue that not all the council results were ‘fair’ either. I feel there are a few that were fairly dubious.
The piece Carlo Gibbs wrote on the blog was his opinion (I imagine), there are others who would argue that the St Peter’s vote count wasn’t as ‘correct’ as he seems to think it was. There is also the issue of appearing a ‘bad loser’ which must play on the mind of someone who is a public figure like Carlo, no one wants the label of being a bad loser, its not a vote winner.
Aside from all the allegations, which may or not be proven, there were quite a few voters who did vote for the combination of Lutfur together with Labour councillors, so the important questions are, from a general perspective:
Why did people make that ‘conscious’ decision to vote for Lutfur as mayor yet vote for Labour councillors?
What were the things that went through people’s minds to come to that conclusion?
Was there pressure whether blatant pressure or other more subtle pressures that were playing out here?
And from a Labour Party perspective:
Why did the candidates fail to sell John to the electorate? Did they even bother to try to sell him or did they focus on getting themselves elected (and not have any difficult conversations about Lutfur)?
Nice person, Labour councillor candidates did not try to sell John Biggs, because he was past his sell by date.
Ajay – when you said “I fear you and other right wing, irresponsible and biassed journalists are playing with fire and stoking up further community tensions in an already polarised borough.” what do you mean?
What do you think could happen on the streets?
PS – have you heard about the Rahman supporter who was stopped and then arrested by the local police when they found he had ” a car boot full of completed postal ballot forms”… maybe this was a set up; perhaps the votes were planted on him by freemasons.
I’d love to hear your views on this arrest too.
You are able to read, aren’t you? If so, read the post again. I certainly didn’t feel excited writing it, just tired and sad: Spain had just lost and I’d missed out on winning £250 on betting a tenner Chile would win 2-1.
Seriously though, your rants are becoming myopic and boring, particularly for me. If you want to carry on commenting here, do try to be a little more measured rather than taking your cue from dear Azad Ali, eh…
Labour. Absolute sore losers. Vomit inducing behavior from TH Labour.
Smile inducing behaviour I’d say. It’s great to watch you wriggling.
-Labour. Absolute sore losers. Vomit inducing behavior from TH Labour.
I’ve been racking my brains and I cannot think of another council in the UK which has ever generated so many investigations into politicians conduct and election malpractice.
Even the likes of Lambeth and Liverpool in their heydey of “basket case Councils” have nothing on Tower Hamlets on this topic.
One has to ask what is different about Tower Hamlets which sparks so many concerns.
In my experience, it’s very rarely the case that a Council should generate so many investigations and enquiries and for there to be absolutely nothing wrong. The old adage of “no smoke without fire” is often quoted for a very good reason.
Indeed if investigators were to conclude there was no case to answer, one might then be forced to ponder on all those other incidents and events where the view was taken that there was no case to answer – until somebody started to investigate the investigators. Sooner or later the truth will out.
Interestingly – on a related matter – as from 10 June 2014, the way people register to vote is changing and you can read more about this on http://gov.uk/register-to-vote
“Register to vote in England and Wales
The way we register to vote is changing
Up to now, the head of a household has been responsible for registering everyone who lives at their address.
From 10 June, people registering to vote in England and Wales will register as individuals instead, using a new, more secure system.
You can now register to vote online in England and Wales.
– See more at: http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote/register_in_england_and_wales.aspx#sthash.2GGTckRn.dpuf “
To be able to register online to vote you will need
* National Insurance number (if you have one)
* passport (if you’ve moved abroad)
To be able to register to vote by post you will need to use this form
Click to access Ordinary_registration_English.pdf
The impression I get is that is going to be much more rigorous checking of entitlement to vote – and that, for certain, the head of the household will no longer be the person for registering those eligible to vote.
We could all speculate as to what this new process will do to the number of people who actually qualify as registered to vote. I suggest this is something that ALL Councillors might like to keep a close eye on – and ask for reports from The Electoral Registration Officer as to the impact in wards and across the Council’s electorate as a whole.
Nice work as usual Mr Jeory. I will start searching Payments to Suppliers payments data for Kryptonite and Teflon immediately.
You guys know there is more to it than “sore losers”.
Team Lutfur have, intentionally or otherwise, polarised the borough along racial lines. Even THF’s white candidates couldn’t get in in “brown” areas. This is appalling and is taking Tower Hamlets back to the ’70s. The mud-slinging tactics of calling non-THF candidates racist should be challenged and I am glad that people are standing up to these gutter tactics and a court is the correct approach.
Yes, I’m glad that aspect is also being challenged. I wish it had been tackled more vigorously during the campaign itself.
It’s not good enough to say afterwards that it was all part of a war. Hopefully this will make people think twice about standards if behaviours during a campaign.
That said, Lutfur has also been the victim of smears.
JohnJee …I live in Bow and saw how Labour / Tories and especially the UKIP party activits targeted white only households. I don’t hear any criticism of UKIP for their unashamedly and exclusive appeal to the White working class people or Tories in Wapping / Docklands knocking on mainly white household doors. Yes this is sad and unfortunate but this is the harsh reality of politics that we have here in TH and its not right that you blame this all on LR/THF.
Are you trying to say Labour in Bow only targeted white only households?
Yes, it would have been great to see you similarly exercised four years ago and since when Lutfur’s been smeared as an extremist.
Who called him am extremist?
Well he’s been far more widely smeared as an extremist than John Biggs has been as racist, no?
Who called Lutfur an extremist?
Hundreds of people have. Most outsiders perusing Twitter or Google probably think it’s a given. I wasn’t saying that someone standing against Lutfur had called him an extremist – but then I don’t think anyone standing against John Biggs (or an agent thereto by extension) called him a racist.
So the ‘john Biggs’s black cardigans comment’ doesn’t fall into that category?
Ajay,
You are wrong. I live in Bow and was targeted by Labour repeatedly, although am most certainly not white. (Most people mistakenly take me to be Bangla from my appearance, but I’m not that either.)
Tim.
Yes, it’s crass and inappropriate and unhelpful and of the Godwin’s Law but no, it’s not a false statement about a candidate for the purposes of s106 RPA 1983.
This?
https://trialbyjeory.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/john-biggs-on-team-lutfurs-latest-racism-allegation-this-endless-mud-slinging-demeans-the-mayor/
http://www.towerhamletslabour.org.uk/lutfur_rahmans_smears_are_an_insult_to_true_victims_of_racism
Michael Keith was not a candidate in the election so his conduct is not governed by the 1983 Act.
Ajay, in Canary Wharf, Island Gardens, Limehouse and BCT we Conservatives knocked on every bodies door, I know because I was there doing the door knocking. We knocked on every door because you never know from where you will get support, I met a Somali women who said she would vote for us because of education issues, I met a Trotskyite who would vote for us locally because he knew we would work hard. The only doors we started deliberately missing towards the end were the doors with nobody registered to vote inside.
“So. First off we have to congratulate Lutfur and his campaign team on their victory last Thursday. Regardless of views on him, you have to accept that he secured a big victory against a strong opponent. It also has to be recognised that the people have decided through elections that were free and fair and conducted under the most intense scrutiny. This was the result and we have to accept that.”
I’ve always liked Carlo Gibbs, His always been honest and fair – its such a shame that other labour party members aren’t the same!
John Jee – It’s nothing more then “sore losers”. The race card was sadly played by both sides. Only difference is that, with the help of the national media, only one of sides is getting slated for it!
How was the race card played by both sides? Give examples.
If you can’t understand that it all started with Labour’s ill advised campaign position of alleging the mayor ‘only works for one community’, and using the all Bengali cabinet membership as an example to prove this, you can’t be expected to be taken seriously.
This was especially cynical coming from Labour as it is they who caused the all-Bengali make up of the cabinet whipping members into non-cooperation.
When Biggs gave that fateful interview to the BBC saying the above, I saw the campaign turn into something much uglier. It was clear from that point on, along with Panorama’s constant invocation of the ‘Bengaliness’ and Bengalis, that Labour had decided on racial campaign lines.
How can they then complain when Lutfur’s merry men use similar tactics against them. I didn’t see any instances of race before that daily politics interview by John Biggs. If there was please provide evidence.
Another example at how hypocritical Labour have become is that the petition sites large groups of Asians outside polling stations as intimidation by THF. Have they forgotten that they are guilty of this equally, if not more so, given their historical presence in the borough. Just because they were Asian doesn’t make them automatically THF, you know. The ‘gauntlet’ included Asian men telling people to vote Labour.
What ‘all started’ with that BBC interview?
In any case, didn’t John Biggs refer to a PERCEPTION that LR works for only one community?
Bit of a difference to how that was spun. Yes, maybe you’re right it started with that…
example 1 – John Biggs: “he is interested in only serving the interests of one community, the bengali community”.
What were the sentences before this quote?
“I like big butts and I cannot lie.” and “You other brothers can’t deny”
Sirius, did John Biggs seriously say that? He is a naughty boy.
@Laughing: “If you can’t understand that it all started with Labour’s ill advised campaign position of alleging the mayor ‘only works for one community’, and using the all Bengali cabinet membership as an example to prove this, you can’t be expected to be taken seriously.”
Alleging? How about the mayor’s election leaflets which called on the ‘specially selected’ individuals who received them to bring 10 members of their family to vote for Lutfur Rahman on polling day?
The days of white Eastenders having large families went out some time around the days of ‘Call the Midwife’. Not to mention the fact that they would not drive their entire family out to vote for one candidate.
There’s the example which comes closer to proving that the Mayor is interested in only one community.
Eastenders script writer, you’re from the racist school of thought like our disgraced friend ‘You couldn’t make it up’.
Lutfur’s +10 leaflet was not all about Bengalis.
I am a Bangladeshi and I do not have 10 family members of voting age.
There is a large student population who came over from Bangladeh in recent years – they are either single or have a partner. They do not have 10 family members.
Lutfur was not saying just get your family members. The way it worked was that you got about 10 or more people to vote for Lutfur (friends, family, colleagues, neighbours, acquiantances). He did not have the Labour party machine behind him. So, this was a way to inspire everyone to get multiple other voters to come out and vote for him. It is a trick which worked. Lutfur was voted in with Bangladeshi votes and thousands of non-Bangladeshi votes.
Do you remember the ‘United Colors of Benetton’ ad where they showed a white, Asian and black brain of the same size and the racist with a smaller brain? This is very true. Racists will use their small brain and say this leaflet is all about Bengalis bringing 10 family members because all Bengalis have 10 family members. Similarly, racists will think ‘literally’ and say this leaflet is only talking about family members – not friends, colleagues, relatives, neighbours etc.
Eastender script writer, at the time Jeory posted this leaflet on this blog, you said that this is the kind of leaflet which will get the EDL rioting in TH. How do you know this? I suspect you are probably one of them.
How do you know what Luftur was or was not saying? Were you there? Did you write the leaflet?
Jay Kay, I used my ordinary sized Asian brain to work things out. Other racists with smaller brains will obviously come to different conclusions.
If the leaflet was aimed at Bangladeshis only, it would have been in Bengali, not English.
You’re more dim than I thought.
Racists say: “All Bengalis have families of ten.” what they actually mean: “look at these backward sex obsessed savages who cannot control their loins – not like us modern east enders, who discovered contraception years ago”. Good old orientalism is back
Who cares if you’re white, black, brown? Why can’t a talented male Muslim person of south-Asian origin do well in the borough?
It’s awful how Lutfur is being demonised considering Labour’s Muslim/ Bengali representatives are so utterly useless in addressing important issues or helping local people.
At least Lutfur’s team bothered to do the case work and showed they “cared” whilst every other party else was engaged in pettiness.
I’m concerned Ted Jeory that your impartiality has also been overstepped and undermined in the process…..
Certainly Lutfur is talented, you can’t question that. The problem is how he is using his talent: I would argue self promotion and the pursuit of power are his key drivers. You could cynically say, aren’t all politicians like that? Maybe many are but I expect better than that. I’m sure there are a wealth of talented local people, talented local ‘male Muslim people of south-Asian origin’ who could take on that role with a very different agenda and promote social cohesion, widening opportunities, make us all proud
100% agree re the current Muslim/Bengali representatives in the Labour Party. This is Labour’s loss and shame as there are lots of very good Bengali activists who are for some reason not ‘flavour of the month’ and are being shut out. This is one of the reasons that Labour is underachieving, they are picking the WRONG SQUAD again and again and need to make a few urgent substitutions!!
Leaving aside the OTT accusations both for and against the Mayor of Tower Hamlets and just looking at the petition, I have some observations.
1) There aren’t that many law firms who have experience of election petitions. It’s a very abstruse area because the law is basically unchanged since the 19th century and there are a tiny number of cases. In effect, only three English solicitors practices have actual experience, and that’s because they are the contract solicitors for the three main parties. The petitioners have used Steel and Shamash, who also work for the Labour Party. If Lutfur Rahman has any sense he will engage not his usual solicitors, but either Penningtons (who have the Conservative Party account) or K & L Gates, who I think work for the Liberal Democrats. I would recommend Penningtons.
2) Assuming the petitioners do deposit security for costs (this is the point at which most frivolous petitions are abandoned), then the petitioners can seek discovery of relevant documents from the Tower Hamlets First campaign. There is even less experience of how this is supposed to work as most election petitions now are about errors in counting votes not campaign irregularities, but in the Phil Woolas case, it was the disclosure of internal discussions about the wording on leaflets which was crucial to proving it.
3) The obvious first step for Lutfur Rahman in resisting the petition is an application through the court for ‘further and better particulars’. Some of the claims in the petition are rather vague: who was personated? Who was registered when not entitled to vote? Whose postal votes were stolen? Where was the alleged false statement of fact made? What were the names of the canvassers who were illegally employed?
4) Although the petition asks for a scrutiny and recount, I doubt this will be pursued. Actually identifying at least 3,252 individual wrongly cast votes is practically impossible.
5) I think this is the first time undue influence has been pleaded in an election petition for a very long time. Certainly not in Parliamentary elections since 1910.
Very useful David. Thank you. The £2.5k deposit into court has been paid. Gerald Shamash handled the Woolas petition, of course.
I was interested to read in the Standard that one of the parties to this legal action has been the victim of an attack on his porperty and business. A worrying development.
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/tower-hamlets-campaigner-challenging-lutfur-rahman-win-in-court-is-vandalism-victim-9548559.html
They painted the man’s van white. As we know, white is sometimes a symbol of peace (i.e. white dove, white poppy etc.). Perhaps, these guys were trying to send a message and make peace albeit their method is really questionable. I condemn this kind of painting of vans white. Not all vans have to be white. They can be black, brown or even pink for that matter.
Anyway, good luck to England tonight. I reckon it will be 2-1 to England. Rooney will score and go ballistic. He’s never scored in the world cup that boy. He has more red cards than goals.
Jeory, I hope you’ll be betting responsibly tonight.
This time you definitely got it wrong!
Andrew Conway, I was right about Rooney scoring. I was also right about the scoreline being 2-1, but the wrong team won. I can’t be right all the time!
I was really gutted though. It will be nearly 50 years since England won or hosted the world cup!!
I like the young players Roy is playing, but some of them were really poor last night. Will they make the difference in 2016 European championship?
“They painted the man’s van white. As we know, white is sometimes a symbol of peace (i.e. white dove, white poppy etc.). Perhaps, these guys were trying to send a message and make peace albeit their method is really questionable.”
Well that’s alright then. I will come round and paint white doves and white Andrex puppies and white fluffy bunnies on your car and the front of your house. As I do so in a spirit of peace and harmony, please don’t send me the bill for the respray, or ask the police to investigate, or even criticise or condemn.
MOTCO – Of course you were right about lots of things – but not the most important.
Perhaps the results should be challenged in the high court. I saw huge numbers of Uruguay supporters in the stadium, shouting at the players, demanding that Uruguay score goals. I’m sure the England players found it very intimidating. And the police did nothing to stop it!
Their captain should’ve been sent off early doors as well. Important England aren’t sore losers and nurture new talent under a leader for the long term.
Conway, you have a good sense of humour. I have changed my mind about you. You’re not just about sticking up for Cllr Golds.
Thank you. We allow postal votes, so we should also allow postal goals. In other words, when Rooney hits the post it should count as a goal.
So the theme seems to have changed to football….So lets imagine a match between THF and the rest of council (ROC). THF would have gorgeous matching kit, Lutfur would be their captain, and they would bus in their supporters almost filling the stadium. Lutfur would also insist on being the referee as well. All funded by taxpayers money. ROC would look resplendent in their Primark kit, bought with Nectar points. Lutfur would toss a coin, – He calls heads. Heads! – Ooops both sides are heads! But no evidence available as someone has nicked the coin. The ground trembles as Eric Pickles thunders on to decide if there has been match fixing, he finds none, he opens his bag, eats 7 pies, 4 Bakewell tarts and a Snickers bar and thunders off. Rabina Khan(right wing) gets the ball and heads for the ROC goal, but is fouled by Peter Golds, they spend the next minutes hitting each other with their handbags. Rabina wins and scores a goal. The THF team celebrate by handing out leaflets to the spectators promoting themselves. At the last minute ROC score a goal but Lutfur declares there was no evidence of any goal. Ted Jeory tries to intervene but the stewards (dressed as stormtroopers and fully armed) throw him out. The spectators invade the pitch so Boris brings in his water cannons and clears it.
Where can we buy tickets?
Let me know when you find out!
John Wright, you forgot the part when you take out your dusty old video camera to record the whole spectacle!
The stadium will be full, the match has been advertised with a full centre page spread in East End Life, every week for 6 weeks in advance.
Eric Pickles should have been more proactive in dealing with the issues in Tower Hamlets at a much earlier stage, things are getting really bad now. All of the above has been allowed to happen because the government thought that any action taken against THF/Respect will risk the social cohesion of the borough. However, social discohesion in the form of segregation is rife in Tower Hamlets schools, housing, politics, extreme wealth, extreme poverty….
The PWC report will find nothing if they do find anything officers will be blamed, someone will be offered 6 figure’s and will happily resign – this is business as usual in LBTH.
Don’t blame the police for what happened on polling day, they could be doing far more important work than standing outside a polling station for 18 hours. This is not Afghanistan or Iraq where people risk their lives to go out and vote.
Exactly what do council officers get paid to do on polling day? Most of them see it as some extra money and a day out of the office. I didn’t see any presiding officers on the day apart from when they came out for lunch or a fag break. Did any council official report anything that happened during polling day or was is a perfectly clean vote? This is where the confusion lies and problems start, the council officer thinks it’s the police officers job and vice versa, in the end nobody deals with anything. Who should be monitoring how people are behaving, what is being said, and what is being left behind in and around the polling station?
Why didn’t the council use the THEO’s and position them outside every polling station instead of wasting police resources. The camera’s they wear could have been very useful in showing everyone exactly how “festive” the scenes were outside polling stations.
Understaffing was clearly an issue during the 5 day count, inadequate facilities was another e.g. polling station on a traffic island, Troxy was not big enough venue for the count. When processing ballots staff should not have been interrupted, but they clearly were.
If the most senior officer in Lambeth council is able to do the job of Returning officer for the entire London region why couldn’t the most senior officer in LBTH do the job of returning officer for just our borough?
It is not enough for the election to be fair and accurate. We have to know that it was fair and accurate.
I’m slightly confused by the race politics/demonisation because he’s brown argument.
A case has been brought on certain grounds. The law has either been broken or it has not. The law does not have particular provisions for brown people and white people.
We’ll find out who wins in due course. Why the cry of victimisation, in this context?
Having a court case is the best way of clearing all this mess up and for the borough to move on positively.
Simplistically I divide people into 5 camps
* people who think all is well and Lutfur is being victimised.
* people who know all is not well but have too many vested interests / too much to lose to rock the boat
* people who know all is not well and can’t accept it
* people who don’t care
* people who are stupid, racist idiots who have their own vile agenda
Of course this is all so much nonsense and fireworks, and Labour are gagging to get Labour & Co back in the tent. Probably after the general election to avoid embarrassing Ed.
If you believe in democracy then you must fight for it. We live in one of the most democratic of countries and others look to ours for inspiration. The loser has accepted defeat. However, serious questions are being asked by people who live here and they need to be explored. The thousands of residents who are living in poverty in Tower Hamlets have very little to lose and everything to gain, the public interest must always come first. People do not have confidence in what happened and this is what is being scrutinised and investigated by relevant institutions.Tower Hamlets is an amazing place, people are very proud to live here, it’s depressing to see how it has had to become a watchword for cronyism and corruption as a Local Authority.
East London Labour councillor under investigation over claims of electoral fraud – Politics – News – London Evening Standard – http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/east-london-labour-councillor-under-investigation-over-claims-of-electoral-fraud-9556550.html
Will you be tweeting / talking about this Ted?
At a guess, no, as it’s not Tower Hamlets.
However I’ll borrow the wording of your question to ask whether Ted will be tweeting / talking about this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/10917142/Arrest-over-car-boot-full-of-voting-forms.html
Tim.
…or this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27948540
Yes, THAT is the story we are all very keen to know more about. Here are some questions:
1. WHY have the police not reported the fact a man was arrested with “a car boot full of completed postal ballot forms” until three weeks after the event?
2. WHY have the police asked councillors not to discuss this matter?
…or this
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/gay-couple-targeted-in-homophobic-attack-by-teenage-gang-on-east-london-street-9558423.html
“They were saying, ‘this is our street, this is our area, get out of here’, just because they thought we were gay. It happens a lot round this area and East London.
“We weren’t even acting gay and that’s what’s upsetting. Whether anyone is gay or not you just can’t feel safe. You’re scared of being attacked and afraid to go out by yourself.”
Mr Adrian was left unconscious after the attack.”
Maybe this gang of local boys were simply “celebrating diversity”…
Or even this!
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4127958.ece
I cant afford the subscription, can someone please enlighten us all?
Lex Lutfur?