Electoral Commission To Look At Corruption In Asian Enclaves

27th May 2014

The Electoral Commission is to launch an investigation into vote counting for the local election in Tower Hamlets.

Counting for the new Bromley South ward finished after it resumed on Monday evening for the third time.

Earlier the commission said it would be sending observers to the count and "looking closely" at the process.

Halal Uddin and Danny Hassell, both from Labour, were elected after the recount. Labour has the most seats - 20, but no party has overall control.

The re-elected mayor Lutfur Rahman, from Tower Hamlets First, will take the decisions for the council with his executive body, but it is the cabinet which will scrutinise them.

A party needs 23 seats to have a majority in the cabinet or overall control of it. Following the Bromley South ward result, Labour, which previously had control of the council, have 20 seats, Tower Hamlets First 18, the Conservatives have four, while three seats are vacant.

Allegations of intimidation

It may be some time before the final result is declared as the results for the final three seats in Blackwall and Cubit Town could take longer to be revealed.

A by-election for the vacant seats will take place next month after a candidate died ahead of last week's polling day.

Officials at the east London borough council have attributed the delay to the mayoral and European elections being held together, a large turnout and recounts.

The Electoral Commission review comes after the body said it was aware of reports of intimidation at counts and polling stations.

Speaking to the PM programme on BBC Radio 4 earlier, John Williams, the returning officer for Tower Hamlets, said the council had not received widespread allegations of intimidation on polling day.

"We found there were numbers of people outside polling stations," he said.

"But we didn't find people inside the polling place, and we didn't find the people outside the polling stations were intimidating voters."

Shouting crowds
The Electoral Commission said it was too early to say what the issues at the count were but stressed people should be able to vote "free from intimidation".

Earlier in a statement, a spokesperson said: "Clearly there have been issues at the Tower Hamlets count and we need to make sure we understand what happened, and the reasons for it, before reaching any conclusions.

"As part of our review, we will be talking to the returning officer and regional returning officer.

"We will be looking closely at what happened during the count, as well as the planning that took place beforehand."

Mr Williams defended the process saying new measures had been put in place after about 100 allegations of fraud were made in the borough after the 2012 election for London mayor, but added none of the allegations had been proven.

He added that the Electoral Commission had not raised any issues on polling day and officials from the body had been in the borough all day.

Politicians said they witnessed crowds shouting at people as they arrived to cast their votes and they claimed leaflets were left in booths to influence voters.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27585346

Yeah, I saw this, they were going for their third attempt to count the votes today.

Tommy Monk wrote:Yeah, I saw this, they were going for their third attempt to count the votes today.

Can't be an easy job, with pressure from the "communities" and certain "allegiances".

I see that investigation into corruption and the blatant channeling of disproportionate amounts of tax money to muslim groups has conveniently found no wrong doing too......!!!

Tommy Monk wrote:I see that investigation into corruption and the blatant channeling of disproportionate amounts of tax money to muslim groups has conveniently found no wrong doing too......!!!

Couldn't it simply be that there was none?

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:I see that investigation into corruption and the blatant channeling of disproportionate amounts of tax money to muslim groups has conveniently found no wrong doing too......!!!

Couldn't it simply be that there was none?

That would be Inconvenient for Tommy      

Channel 4 documentary showed conclusive evidence of massive diverting of taxpayers money.


Vote rigging and electoral fraud has also been shown to be widespread.



This is not a made up thing to just be anti muslim, this is a reality of what the muslims are doing in tower hamlets and elsewhere which is creating the negative feelings.

He added that the Electoral Commission had not raised any issues on polling day and officials from the body had been in the borough all day.

Politicians said they witnessed crowds shouting at people as they arrived to cast their votes and they claimed leaflets were left in booths to influence voters.

Labour Mile End councillor Rachael Saunders told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is a real worry from a lot of people that the police committed there would only be two people per party allowed to be outside the polling stations.

"But in fact there were huge crowds at some, shouting at people or encouraging them to vote in a particular way."

She added that presiding officers should have ensured leaflets were removed from booths but failed to do so.

I don't get what they were even supposed to be doing wrong   

All the parties hand out leaflets here? and people are allowed to support there preferred member with signs and trying to convince people as the arrive at polling places?

AND All the Actual people and official involved not some sensationalist TV crew said there was no issue.

So yeah, it does seem to be made up even by the facts presented in the Article   

Read your own quotes you tit.


Huge crowds shouting at voters might be a clue......




And The fact that earlier today they were trying again on their third attempt to count the votes.....



You obviously have no idea on reality about tower hamlets.

what are tower hamlets? what makes a hamlet a tower hamlet?

No I don't understand why shouting (freedom of speech   ) is an issue it is like that outside the polling booth in Australia, parties openly rally to get supporters down there to hand out flyers and do the party chants.....(with varying success)

Is this going to be another of the 'tradition' things that England cant change due to massive incompetence?

Veya, I live about 6 miles from Tower Hamlets and what tommy says is true.You live a long way away, you know fcuk all!!!

This is just Bengali culture, it's racist to object. On a serious note, Tower Hamlets has been on a very slippery slope for a while now, would honestly not be surprised if it became the first, or one of the first, autonomous islamic regions of the UK.

The Puzzler wrote:This is just Bengali culture, it's racist to object. On a serious note, Tower Hamlets has been on a very slippery slope for a while now, would honestly not be surprised if it became the first, or one of the first, autonomous islamic regions of the UK.

For fucks sake.....

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Tommy Monk wrote:I see that investigation into corruption and the blatant channeling of disproportionate amounts of tax money to muslim groups has conveniently found no wrong doing too......!!!

Couldn't it simply be that there was none?

No. There's a history of voting corruption in Tower Hamlets, not just at this election. They're doing it through the postal voting system, multiple votes, votes from people who don't even live in the country and votes from people who've already died! They scrutinised this election more thoroughly already, and had already deleted 5,000 postal votes which weren't genuine - and that's just from one London Borough.

Tesstacious wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Couldn't it simply be that there was none?

No.  There's a history of voting corruption in Tower Hamlets, not just at this election.  They're doing it through the postal voting system, multiple votes, votes from people who don't even live in the country and votes from people who've already died!  They scrutinised this election more thoroughly already, and had already deleted 5,000 postal votes which weren't genuine - and that's just from one London Borough.

Er no there is claims and these claims have been shown to be very few substantiated or completely false


http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/154531/Tower-Hamlets-report-2013.pdf

"... Following the 2001 election in Bethnal Green and Bow, George Galloway used his victory speech to personally attack the returning officer for the conduct of the election. In successive rounds of election in this borough the situation has got far worse, at least in the eyes of voter’s, campaigners and some persistent and able journalists. For the police, ultimately the guardians of our electoral process, it appears to be just “perception”. I have files full of detailed investigations that I and others have undertaken and a folder of unanswered letters sent to the police. Sadly, as I have discovered, I am not the only one with a similar story. Colleagues across the country say the same.

The detailed judgements of Richard Mawrey QC, when acting as an Election Commissioner in Birmingham, Slough and Woking and his erudite explanation of election law show just how our system has slipped. I have looked at all his key indicators of election fraud; everyone is easily identified in Tower Hamlets. Specific cases have been sent to the police to no avail, until in 2012 an investigation was undertaken which, as you will see, was so poor as to prove an embarrassment.

Exactly two years ago a group of brilliant researchers identified a number of addresses in this borough where we established were a number of dubious registrations. A substantial dossier was presented to the Electoral Registration Officer and 200 names were removed from the register across the borough. One case is of particular interest...."

http://www.conservativehome.com/localgovernment/2014/01/tower-hamlets-and-electoral-fraud-a-case-study-in-inertia.html

There was vote-rigging going on there back from when Ken Livingstone was Mayor, can't remember the details now...

Tesstacious wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:

Couldn't it simply be that there was none?

No.  There's a history of voting corruption in Tower Hamlets, not just at this election.  They're doing it through the postal voting system, multiple votes, votes from people who don't even live in the country and votes from people who've already died!  They scrutinised this election more thoroughly already, and had already deleted 5,000 postal votes which weren't genuine - and that's just from one London Borough.

Voting fraud seems to be a largely islamic issue, it's been going on for years as well - http://tundratabloids.com/2014/05/u-k-police-to-watch-for-voter-fraud-and-intimidation-in-muslim-no-go-zones.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1271457/General-Election-2010-Postal-vote-fraud-amid-fears-bogus-voters-swing-election.html
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100153760/tower-hamlets-electoral-fraud-heres-some-more-evidence/

The Puzzler wrote:

Tesstacious wrote:
No.  There's a history of voting corruption in Tower Hamlets, not just at this election.  They're doing it through the postal voting system, multiple votes, votes from people who don't even live in the country and votes from people who've already died!  They scrutinised this election more thoroughly already, and had already deleted 5,000 postal votes which weren't genuine - and that's just from one London Borough.

Voting fraud seems to be a largely islamic issue, it's been going on for years as well - http://tundratabloids.com/2014/05/u-k-police-to-watch-for-voter-fraud-and-intimidation-in-muslim-no-go-zones.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1271457/General-Election-2010-Postal-vote-fraud-amid-fears-bogus-voters-swing-election.html
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100153760/tower-hamlets-electoral-fraud-heres-some-more-evidence/

Actually what does seem to be the case is many claims made of fraud, with very little evidence to show that there is any, what you then have to ask if these claims are premeditated.

Tesstacious wrote:"... Following the 2001 election in Bethnal Green and Bow, George Galloway used his victory speech to personally attack the returning officer for the conduct of the election. In successive rounds of election in this borough the situation has got far worse, at least in the eyes of voter’s, campaigners and some persistent and able journalists. For the police, ultimately the guardians of our electoral process, it appears to be just “perception”. I have files full of detailed investigations that I and others have undertaken and a folder of unanswered letters sent to the police. Sadly, as I have discovered, I am not the only one with a similar story. Colleagues across the country say the same.

The detailed judgements of Richard Mawrey QC, when acting as an Election Commissioner in Birmingham, Slough and Woking and his erudite explanation of election law show just how our system has slipped. I have looked at all his key indicators of election fraud; everyone is easily identified in Tower Hamlets. Specific cases have been sent to the police to no avail, until in 2012 an investigation was undertaken which, as you will see, was so poor as to prove an embarrassment.

Exactly two years ago a group of brilliant researchers identified a number of addresses in this borough where we established were a number of dubious registrations. A substantial dossier was presented to the Electoral Registration Officer and 200 names were removed from the register across the borough.  One case is of particular interest...."

http://www.conservativehome.com/localgovernment/2014/01/tower-hamlets-and-electoral-fraud-a-case-study-in-inertia.html

There was vote-rigging going on there back from when Ken Livingstone was Mayor, can't remember the details now...

Read the report Tess

Politicians need to "wake up" to growing problems of corruption involving sections of some minority communities, according to Dominic Grieve, the Conservative MP and attorney general.

Citing electoral corruption as a particular concern and singling out the Pakistani community, Grieve said that the problem was on the rise because some minority communities "come from backgrounds where corruption is endemic".

Many immigrants, he said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph, "come from societies where they have been brought up to believe you can only get certain things through a favour culture".

Followed very shortly afterwards by:


The government's chief legal adviser has apologised for any offence caused when he said corruption was "endemic" in some ethnic minority communities.

Attorney general Dominic Grieve told a newspaper the problem was not restricted to "any one community" but he was referring mainly to Pakistanis.

Some Asian commentators have described Mr Grieve's remarks as "divisive".

Later, Mr Grieve said he was wrong to give the impression that there was a problem in the Pakistani community.

In a statement, he said: "It is not my view. I believe the Pakistani community has enriched this country a great deal as I know full well from my extensive contact with the community over a number of years.

"I'm sorry if I have caused any offence."


Poor guy - how dare he speak out.

The truth must be wrong because the truth is not politically correct.



Why should certain groups of people have a free reign on wrong doing because any highlighting of it and criticism is seen as racist etc?



How many elephants do we need in the room?

Tommy Monk wrote:The truth must be wrong because the truth is not politically correct.



Why should certain groups of people have a free reign on wrong doing because any highlighting of it and criticism is seen as racist etc?



How many elephants do we need in the room?

They won't do anything until we have English citizens being beheaded on our streets Tommy.

Errrrm... Bugger!