Judge slates 'banana republic' postal voting system

[emad]

Judge slates 'banana republic' postal voting system

Sandra Laville
Tuesday April 5, 2005
The Guardian

A senior judge made a scathing attack on the postal voting system yesterday, condemning the government for complacency in the face of fraud which would disgrace a "banana republic".

Richard Mawrey QC, presiding over a special election court in Birmingham, warned that there were no realistic systems in place to detect or prevent postal voting fraud at the general election. "Until there are, fraud will continue unabated," he said.

He found six Labour councillors in Birmingham guilty of carrying out "massive, systematic and organised" postal voting fraud to win two wards during last June's elections for the city council. Declaring the results void, he barred the men from standing again in a byelection expected on May 12.

After the judgment the national Labour party suspended the six men. A spokesman said they would be sub ject to a "vigorous disciplinary process". Criminal charges against them are expected. Police said yesterday their inquiries were continuing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1452290,00.html