Three former Peterborough Labour party members left court yesterday facing years behind bars after being found guilty of vote rigging, according to The Peterborough Evening Telegraph. Tariq Mahmood (40) of Clarence Road, Maqbool Hussein (52) of Ledbury Road, Netherton, and former Mayor of Peterborough Mohammed Choudhary, (49), of Cobden Street, all rigged votes in a botched attempt to win seats in the 2004 local elections. Choudhary and Hussein were Central ward candidates at the elections.The three men "hijacked" postal and proxy vote application forms from voters in the Asian and Portuguese communities in the run-up to the Central ward elections, and filled some of them in themselves.
After the verdicts were read out by the jury foreman, Deputy Circuit Judge Alan Hitching told the men: "You all face immediate custodial sentences. The only issue will be how long those sentences are."
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