"I Can't Remember Signing Postal Vote Form Because Mum Was Unwell"

According to evidence given in King's Lynn Crown Court yesterday by alleged Peterborough vote rigger Shafaqat Hussain, the accused was unable to remember applying for a postal ballot form at an address other than his own: "My mum was ill, which makes it difficult to remember. Sometimes it is tough to remember about signing things, sometimes you even forget what you did last week. Our father told us to sign the form. He is our father so we do what he says."

Brothers Shafaqat and Sadaqat Hussain were appearing as witnesses in the trial of three Labour Party members, including a former Peterborough mayor, who are alleged to have hijacked ballot papers in the Peterborough Central ward in the June 2004 city council election.

The brothers are one of a number of prosecution witnesses being called in the trial of Mohammed Choudhary, Maqbool Hussein and Tariq Mahmood.

Choudhary, who was mayor of Peterborough between May 1996 and 1997, allegedly used a number of city centre addresses to send postal voting and proxy forms, in an attempt to manipulate the election. For more details, see The Peterborough Evening Telegraph.