According to an exposé in last night's "Newsnight" programme, reported in today's Daily Mail, Labour allegedly paid drug addicts to vote up to 25 times to rig a tightly fought election in Birmingham.Respect Party representative Abdul Aziz claimed that Labour spent £10,000 to gain a 666-vote majority and oust him from the ward of Aston in Birmingham.
A community leader told Newsnight that he had been offered £20 for every postal vote he rigged and a drug addict claimed he was paid £5 for every vote he cast - netting himself £125.
Muhammed Afzal, the Labour candidate who won the ward in this year's council elections, yesterday faced an election court charged with corruption following allegations he libelled his Liberal Democrat opponent.
The news comes after a judge found six Labour councillors guilty of electoral fraud during 2004's council election in two Birmingham wards and said the events would "disgrace a banana republic''. Richard Mawrey, QC, sitting as a High Court judge two years ago, said the councillors were responsible for a "massive, systematic and organised fraud'' that was supported by the local Labour Party.
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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: