TWO people who appeared to vote by post in the local elections had died several months earlier, according to a dossier of alleged cheating being studied by polling officials.
Five visitors from Pakistan were falsely entered on the electoral roll, along with four inhabitants of an empty flat, it is claimed. Another 29 people voted “who were not in the country when the ballots were dispatched and who did not return to the country in time to vote”, the dossier states.
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The complaints concern Great Horton, a ward in inner-city Bradford where Paul Flowers, a Labour councillor, urged police to investigate. “We believe that these allegations are the tip of an iceberg of malpractice and electoral irregularities which have occurred in this election,” Mr Flowers said.
The dossier, drawn up by Labour and the Liberal Democrats, also complains of irregularities in the European elections held simultaneously.
Labour came first, third and fourth in the local elections last week. Intkhab Alam, a Conservative, came second, taking one of the three vacant council seats. Mr Alam hugely outperformed the other Tory candidates, who came sixth and ninth. He was a prominent serving councillor for a different part of the city. The dossier alleges that Mr Alam “sought votes and claimed a bogus victory”.
Mr Alam said he was fairly elected and described all the allegations as false.
Detectives are investigating two unrelated allegations of electoral fraud involving theft of ballot papers in other Bradford wards. Philip Robinson, chief returning officer, confirmed that he had received details of alleged electoral malpractice in Great Horton. “These are currently being examined by my election staff,” he said. “As with previous complaints, I will be referring any issues that appear to have supporting evidence to the police for action.”
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When The Times visited Great Horton before the election, Asian voters living in the densely populated terraced streets complained about the behaviour of mainstream party supporters. Murtaza Hussain, 32, said: “They tell us, ‘You give the ballot papers to us and we will vote for you.’ ”
Raja Riaz, 28, told the police that voting papers had been collected from his mother-in-law’s house. “They took three ballot papers,” he said. “I wasn’t at home. If I was at home I could have stopped it.”
A lawyer said that Mr Alam and a Conservative canvasser had turned up at his home the day after postal votes were delivered. The two Tories waited until he and his wife had voted for them and signed identity declarations, then “voluntarily” collected the votes to be posted, the voter alleged. This practice would breach the Electoral Commission’s draft guidelines, which urge canvassers against collecting postal votes.
Mr Alam hit the headlines three years ago when he told an undercover News of the World reporter that he could help foreigners to enter the country for £2,000. He was suspended by the Conservatives but reinstated when the police decided to take no action.
Mr Alam told The Times yesterday that he had done nothing wrong in the election and that the claims were politically motivated. “They are false allegations against me by both political parties because they know there is no future for them in that ward,” he said. “They are only trying to save their seats, especially the Labour Party.
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“There will be no outcome of this because obviously there is nothing there. If there is an investigation I will be delighted. I am willing to co-operate. The election was actually conducted in a proper manner and no misconduct took place on our behalf. I did not take any postal votes from anybody. I personally did not post a vote for anybody, except myself.”
Bradford was included by the Government in the postal-only voting pilot scheme as part of the European election region Yorkshire and the Humber. The city has a history of election fraud and the council had unanimously urged ministers to exclude it from the experiment. The Electoral Commission had also been unable to recommend the inclusion of the region in the pilot.