The Electoral Commission needs radical reform if to is to deal with the growing spectre of voting fraud and to cope with issues such as the "cash-for-honours" affair, according to a report published by The House of Commons Committee on Standards in Public Life on Thursday.
The review was set up a year ago to look at the mandate, governance and accountability of the Electoral Commission, which monitors elections and political parties. The Parliamentary Committee said uncertainty over the role of the commission had led to the regulator's failure to prevent the issue of loans made to political parties.
Publication comes just hours before the latest arrest in the cash-for-honours affair, that of Tony Blair's "gatekeeper" Ruth Turner, Director of Government Relations ("I'm driven by seeing things that are wrong in the world, seeing what could be right with the world and wanting to put it better").
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A word about evidence. Most of what people think is material evidence of a criminal offence is in fact either hearsay evidence (asserted, but without any proof) or circumstantial evidence (suggests guilt but does not prove it). For an introduction to the subject of evidence, try: