East Midlands Guardian 1.6.09
The Whiff of Corruption
by Edward Spalton (18 May 2009)
It is not just parliament. The democratic process itself is now
tainted with corruption which did not exist before. This is largely
the result of Labour's extension of universal postal voting on
request. Sir Christopher Kelly, chairman of the Committee on
Standards in Public Life said as much.
Citizens of other EU countries have a right to vote in EU elections.
The large number of EU immigrants here could unduly influence the
poll results in a low turnout of native voters. That is within the
rules.
Among immigrant communities where the authority of male heads of
household and of community leaders is strong, postal voting is an
open invitation to ballot rigging, bullying and undue influence. In
2005 the Electoral Commissioner Richard Mawrey QC ruled that
Birmingham had a system that was "wide open to fraud".
He upheld the claim by Liberal Democrats that Labour activists were
using the postal vote to rig an election. He said "Short of writing
"steal me" on the envelopes, it is hard to see what more could be
done to ensure their coming into the wrong hands".
This system is reckoned to favour Labour . Conservatives have been
caught at the same game but the names of those accused and convicted
so far suggest that this is a largely Muslim practice. There is also
considerable anecdotal evidence that illegal immigrants can easily
get themselves registered to vote. The sheer pressure of demand for
postal votes means that Returning Officers are unable to conduct
effective checks.
Labour has set up a special company in Londonderry, called Opt2Vote
Ltd which "specialises in designing and delivering a range of
solutions to address the changing needs of the UK electoral services
market".
Postal votes handled though this company are beyond the control of
returning officers whose local knowledge might ring bells if ten
people were suddenly registered at a small terraced house. The
company claims to have dealt with 10 million votes in the last three
years. So a considerable part of the electoral process has already
been outsourced and privatised.
Under the old system there were occasional cases of undue influence
being brought to bear on postal votes from old people's homes. Now
the same thing can happen over whole neighbourhoods.
The present gerrymandered system will be replaced but this will not
happen before 2014. The last possible date for the next general
election is June 2010. So Labour will still have the advantage from
the corruption created by its scheme. Countries rot from the head
down and the rot has already gone very far . MPs were too busy
fiddling their expenses to bother about it.
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