Saturday, February 24, 2007

Election Fraud Probe Evidence Of "Widespread" Corruption

Human rights investigators probing alleged election fraud in the UK are visiting London and Brighton next week to take evidence, according to a Press Association statement. The inquiry has been launched by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog.

A resolution signed by 18 Assembly members - national politicians from the Council's 46 member countries - cites "a growing body of evidence that widespread absent vote fraud is taking place in the United Kingdom". Special concern has been shown by Russian and Polish MPs. The Assembly's Monitoring Committee appointed former German Justice Minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin and Polish Senator Urszula Gacek to look into allegations of irregularities involving postal and absentee votes. Visits have also been arranged to representatives of the Electoral Commission, the Committee of Standards in Public Life, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Electoral Reform Society.