Extra £10m to counter postal vote fraud

7 Apr 05
A government pledge to spend an extra £10m on preventing postal ballot fraud has been dismissed as a 'half measure' which will not stop voting malpractice at next month's general election.

08 April 2005

A government pledge to spend an extra £10m on preventing postal ballot fraud has been dismissed as a 'half measure' which will not stop voting malpractice at next month's general election.

Local government minister Nick Raynsford unveiled the additional money on April 5 in the wake of the voting scandal in Birmingham, where six Labour councillors were found guilty of carrying out a 'massive, systematic and organised' postal voting fraud in local elections last June. 

As many as 3,000 postal votes were found to be fraudulent, either stolen or filled in by Labour party supporters, a specially convened election court ruled this week.

Judge Richard Mawrey said the scale of the fraud would have 'disgraced a banana republic'. Mawrey condemned the government for 'complacency' over the fraud threat and said there would be further malpractice at the general election.

Raynsford said the money would be used to provide extra support for electoral returning officers, and further guidance would be sent to staff and police on how to tackle fraud. 

However, the Electoral Reform Society said money was not enough. 'It is only a half measure if you give people extra money but you don't give them the powers to make investigations,' said ERS campaign manager Alex Folkes. 'It is clearly not going to prevent further cases of fraud.'

As many as 15% of the electorate are expected to vote by post in the general election.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke also added his voice to the debate, after meeting with the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, Chris Fox, on April 6. He pledged anti-fraud guidelines would be sent to every police force.

After the election, the ERS wants changes to the law which will have voters registered individually rather than by household and give returning officers the power to investigate allegations of fraud. 

The ERS is calling for voters to be given the chance to be taken off the postal list for the general election, called for May 5 by Prime Minister Tony Blair this week. People have until April 24 to apply for a postal vote.

Parliament will be dissolved on Monday, April 11, by which time a number of Bills still in process will have been rushed through, including the Gambling Bill.

But the government was forced to abandon its identity card Bill. Clarke said it would be reintroduced if Labour won the election.


 

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