A very disturbing trend has surfaced in the UK. That of Postal vote rigging during election time. See if you can spot the common denominator:
Three Labour councillors accused of vote-rigging in last year's local council elections in Birmingham have walked out of a High Court inquiry. Shafaq Ahmed, Shah Jahan, and Ayaz Khan left just before the start of the hearing, the first of its kind in England in living memory.
A Tory councillor has been found guilty of using bogus postal votes to ensure he was voted into office. Eshaq Khan beat Lydia Simmons, an ex-mayor of Slough, Berkshire, by 119 votes to win the council's Central Ward in last year's local elections.
A former Labour councillor has been jailed for three and a half years for rigging postal votes. Muhammed Hussain, 61, from Logwood Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud local elections in May 2002.
At the height of the skulduggery was a "vote-rigging factory" set up by Labour activists in Aston and run from a disused warehouse. There, the three candidates - Mohammed Islam, Muhammed Afzal and Mohammed Kazi, who maintained their innocence and described yesterday's judgment as a "dark day for democracy" - and their supporters altered bags stuffed with ballots to ensure that they were elected.
Seven men, including a former Conservative party candidate, have appeared in court in Bradford charged with postal voting fraud. Jamshed Khan, 53, Reis Khan, 38, Tahir Mahmood, 40, Mohammed Rafiq, 67, Alyas Khan, 49 and Mohammed Sultan, 49, from Bradford, appeared before magistrates.
A former city mayor has been jailed for nine months after being convicted of vote-rigging. Labour's Mohammed Choudhary, 49, former mayor of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, was jailed at King's Lynn Crown Court. Party candidate Maqbool Hussein, 52, was jailed for three months and Tariq Mahmood, 40, received a 15-month term.
Two Liberal Democrat councillors took part in a "criminal agreement" to rig a local election in Lancashire using proxy votes, a court has heard. Burnley councillors Manzur Hussain and Mozaquir Ali are accused of defrauding more than 160 voters in June 2004.
Postal vote-rigging may have influenced the outcome of local elections in London, a Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) report has revealed. In communities where English is a second language, people often seek assistance and this can lead to interference from a third party, he said. The report said there was evidence such activity had taken place within the Bengali community in Tower Hamlets.
It appears that fighting fair isn't in the Koran.
Three Labour councillors accused of vote-rigging in last year's local council elections in Birmingham have walked out of a High Court inquiry. Shafaq Ahmed, Shah Jahan, and Ayaz Khan left just before the start of the hearing, the first of its kind in England in living memory.
A Tory councillor has been found guilty of using bogus postal votes to ensure he was voted into office. Eshaq Khan beat Lydia Simmons, an ex-mayor of Slough, Berkshire, by 119 votes to win the council's Central Ward in last year's local elections.
A former Labour councillor has been jailed for three and a half years for rigging postal votes. Muhammed Hussain, 61, from Logwood Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud local elections in May 2002.
At the height of the skulduggery was a "vote-rigging factory" set up by Labour activists in Aston and run from a disused warehouse. There, the three candidates - Mohammed Islam, Muhammed Afzal and Mohammed Kazi, who maintained their innocence and described yesterday's judgment as a "dark day for democracy" - and their supporters altered bags stuffed with ballots to ensure that they were elected.
Seven men, including a former Conservative party candidate, have appeared in court in Bradford charged with postal voting fraud. Jamshed Khan, 53, Reis Khan, 38, Tahir Mahmood, 40, Mohammed Rafiq, 67, Alyas Khan, 49 and Mohammed Sultan, 49, from Bradford, appeared before magistrates.
A former city mayor has been jailed for nine months after being convicted of vote-rigging. Labour's Mohammed Choudhary, 49, former mayor of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, was jailed at King's Lynn Crown Court. Party candidate Maqbool Hussein, 52, was jailed for three months and Tariq Mahmood, 40, received a 15-month term.
Two Liberal Democrat councillors took part in a "criminal agreement" to rig a local election in Lancashire using proxy votes, a court has heard. Burnley councillors Manzur Hussain and Mozaquir Ali are accused of defrauding more than 160 voters in June 2004.
Postal vote-rigging may have influenced the outcome of local elections in London, a Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) report has revealed. In communities where English is a second language, people often seek assistance and this can lead to interference from a third party, he said. The report said there was evidence such activity had taken place within the Bengali community in Tower Hamlets.
It appears that fighting fair isn't in the Koran.
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