br ash
08-04-2005, 07:30 PM
Vote fraud councillor jailed
8 April 2005
A former Labour party councillor was jailed today for three years, seven months, for rigging postal votes in a local council election.
Muhammed Hussain, 61, arranged for the collection of blank ballot papers posted out to homes in the ward where he was standing in Blackburn, Lancs.
Campaigners went house to house asking voters to hand over blank ballot papers, telling them: "Don't worry we'll take care of them."
Hussain went on to beat the sitting Tory candidate at the local elections of May 2002.
He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiring to defraud the returning officer in the Bastwell ward of Blackburn.
Passing sentence at Preston Crown Court Judge Peter Openshaw called it a "public scandal" and told Hussain he was passing a "stiff" sentence to set an example to others.
Earlier this week, a judge in Birmingham described Britain's postal voting system as something that would "disgrace a banana republic".
Judge Openshaw added: "In my judgment, public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process is a foundation of our democratic system. Those who fraudulently interfere are committing a most grave offence against the body politic."
He said the current postal voting system was "wide open to fraud".
"The defendant has literally stolen votes.
"There is no guidance available to me because happily there is no precedent as to how I should fix the appropriate sentence for electoral fraud on this scale.
"I consider it to be my public duty to make it a stiff sentence intended to discourage others from yielding to similar temptation."
Salaam
Ash
8 April 2005
A former Labour party councillor was jailed today for three years, seven months, for rigging postal votes in a local council election.
Muhammed Hussain, 61, arranged for the collection of blank ballot papers posted out to homes in the ward where he was standing in Blackburn, Lancs.
Campaigners went house to house asking voters to hand over blank ballot papers, telling them: "Don't worry we'll take care of them."
Hussain went on to beat the sitting Tory candidate at the local elections of May 2002.
He pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to conspiring to defraud the returning officer in the Bastwell ward of Blackburn.
Passing sentence at Preston Crown Court Judge Peter Openshaw called it a "public scandal" and told Hussain he was passing a "stiff" sentence to set an example to others.
Earlier this week, a judge in Birmingham described Britain's postal voting system as something that would "disgrace a banana republic".
Judge Openshaw added: "In my judgment, public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process is a foundation of our democratic system. Those who fraudulently interfere are committing a most grave offence against the body politic."
He said the current postal voting system was "wide open to fraud".
"The defendant has literally stolen votes.
"There is no guidance available to me because happily there is no precedent as to how I should fix the appropriate sentence for electoral fraud on this scale.
"I consider it to be my public duty to make it a stiff sentence intended to discourage others from yielding to similar temptation."
Salaam
Ash