Saturday, May 31, 2008

Police Probe Vote Rigging Claims

Allah DadAccrington police are set to probe allegations of vote rigging at the local elections staged earlier this month. Conservative councillor and Cabinet member Allah Dad, retained the Accrington's Central ward seat from Labour's Tariq Ali and Lib Dem's Ifty Khan in this month's council elections with a majority of 220. However complaints about the high number of proxy votes cast - up to 10 times higher than past elections - have led to a police investigation. 50% of all proxy votes cast throughout Hyndburn's 12 wards were made in the Central ward election. A police spokeswoman confirmed an investigation into the number of proxy votes was taking place but said: "We are unable to confirm at this point the nature of the complaints which led us to investigate."