Lady Warsi accuses Asian community of electoral fraud.
Discussion
I don't know if there is any truth to her allegation of this occurring predominantly within a certain community but it's quite sad that none of the parties really care to tackle the issue of 'ghost voters'.
It also happened with the referendum for an elected mayor in Tower Hamlets yet the authorities brushed it under the carpet again.
Now that a government minister has raised the issue I wonder if anything will be done about it.
It also happened with the referendum for an elected mayor in Tower Hamlets yet the authorities brushed it under the carpet again.
Now that a government minister has raised the issue I wonder if anything will be done about it.
The Beeb said:
The Conservatives failed to win an overall majority at the general election because of electoral fraud, the party chairman has said.
Baroness Warsi told the New Statesman the alleged fraud was "predominantly within the Asian community" and benefited Labour.
Labour called the allegations "unsubstantiated" and urged Lady Warsi to produce evidence.
The Electoral Commission said police would need to investigate any claims.
The Conservative Party chairman told the New Statesman: "At least three seats where we lost, where we didn't gain the seat, based on electoral fraud. Now, could we have planned for that in the campaign? Absolutely not."
'Concerns'
She would not say where it had happened: "I think it would be wrong to start identifying them.
"It is predominantly within the Asian community. I have to look back and say we didn't do well in those communities, but was there something over and above that we could have done? Well, actually not, if there is going to be voter fraud."
Lady Warsi said she had written to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is overseeing the coalition government's electoral reforms.
A Conservative spokesman confirmed the party did have some concerns about a number of seats which it was looking into.
The BBC tried to contact Lady Warsi about the allegations but she was unavailable.
The Conservatives won 307 seats and 36.1% of the votes, while Labour won 258 seats and 29% of the votes.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
In my own constituency I've had ghost voters who don't actually live where they claim to live”
End Quote John Hemming Liberal Democrat MP
The Liberal Democrats won 57 seats with a 23% share of the votes.
The Electoral Commission, which is publishing its own report on the matter in January, told the BBC without any further details about the constituencies involved, it would be unable to comment further.
The city of Birmingham was once described by High Court judge Richard Mawrey QC as "worse than a banana republic" because of the scale of postal ballot fraud when it came to city council elections.
Before this election, Birmingham City Council and the police said new security measures would make postal voting in the general election "safe and easy".
Although there has been no suggestion that Birmingham is among the areas Lady Warsi is referring to, Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, told the BBC that Lady Warsi should share any evidence she had obtained with the authorities.
"She needs to substantiate that. She needs to give the evidence to the authorities and make sure it's investigated.
"And if she has the evidence [then] to deal with it. I can't see that happening."
He said he would be amazed if there was evidence of people conducting wide-spread electoral fraud during the general election.
Ghost voters
John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP for the Birmingham Yardley constituency, said more needed to be done to safeguard against voter fraud.
"In my own constituency I've had ghost voters who don't actually live where they claim to live.
"But the underlying problem with the system is that once somebody has turned up to the polling station and pretended to be somebody else to vote, it's all gone."
He said it was difficult to get evidence that fraud was taking place.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said police received 41 complaints about the election but was taking no further action in relation to those.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11441382Baroness Warsi told the New Statesman the alleged fraud was "predominantly within the Asian community" and benefited Labour.
Labour called the allegations "unsubstantiated" and urged Lady Warsi to produce evidence.
The Electoral Commission said police would need to investigate any claims.
The Conservative Party chairman told the New Statesman: "At least three seats where we lost, where we didn't gain the seat, based on electoral fraud. Now, could we have planned for that in the campaign? Absolutely not."
'Concerns'
She would not say where it had happened: "I think it would be wrong to start identifying them.
"It is predominantly within the Asian community. I have to look back and say we didn't do well in those communities, but was there something over and above that we could have done? Well, actually not, if there is going to be voter fraud."
Lady Warsi said she had written to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is overseeing the coalition government's electoral reforms.
A Conservative spokesman confirmed the party did have some concerns about a number of seats which it was looking into.
The BBC tried to contact Lady Warsi about the allegations but she was unavailable.
The Conservatives won 307 seats and 36.1% of the votes, while Labour won 258 seats and 29% of the votes.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
In my own constituency I've had ghost voters who don't actually live where they claim to live”
End Quote John Hemming Liberal Democrat MP
The Liberal Democrats won 57 seats with a 23% share of the votes.
The Electoral Commission, which is publishing its own report on the matter in January, told the BBC without any further details about the constituencies involved, it would be unable to comment further.
The city of Birmingham was once described by High Court judge Richard Mawrey QC as "worse than a banana republic" because of the scale of postal ballot fraud when it came to city council elections.
Before this election, Birmingham City Council and the police said new security measures would make postal voting in the general election "safe and easy".
Although there has been no suggestion that Birmingham is among the areas Lady Warsi is referring to, Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, told the BBC that Lady Warsi should share any evidence she had obtained with the authorities.
"She needs to substantiate that. She needs to give the evidence to the authorities and make sure it's investigated.
"And if she has the evidence [then] to deal with it. I can't see that happening."
He said he would be amazed if there was evidence of people conducting wide-spread electoral fraud during the general election.
Ghost voters
John Hemming, the Liberal Democrat MP for the Birmingham Yardley constituency, said more needed to be done to safeguard against voter fraud.
"In my own constituency I've had ghost voters who don't actually live where they claim to live.
"But the underlying problem with the system is that once somebody has turned up to the polling station and pretended to be somebody else to vote, it's all gone."
He said it was difficult to get evidence that fraud was taking place.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said police received 41 complaints about the election but was taking no further action in relation to those.
It's obviously no coincidence that it's the Asian Baroness Warsi who has made this statement.
There's no smoke without fire, and there have been various investigations in to this within the Asian community. Reading and Slough have both seen police investigations within the Asian community for instance. I'm sure it's even worse in the northern heartlands!
I suspect she's bang on the money - and I'd like to see postal voting scrapped. It's more important to have a fair election than to allow a handful of people who can't vote the right to vote.
There's no smoke without fire, and there have been various investigations in to this within the Asian community. Reading and Slough have both seen police investigations within the Asian community for instance. I'm sure it's even worse in the northern heartlands!
I suspect she's bang on the money - and I'd like to see postal voting scrapped. It's more important to have a fair election than to allow a handful of people who can't vote the right to vote.
It's a well known phenomenon in Asian parts of Birmingham. Google for details. Several prosecutions occurred some years ago.
The beneficiaries are almost always the Labour party, so no surprise that they brushed it under the carpet. Also, the Muslim community almost always votes as a block. So the slightest suggestion of wrong doing and the Muslim vote can unseat an MP or Councillor. That's why the Labour party always pussy footed around the community.
The conservatives have never commanded much of the Muslim vote anyway. So they can speak more freely without fear of losing seats.
Well done to to the Baroness for speaking out. I agree that a tightening of the voting rules would have yielded a Conservative majority.
pp
The beneficiaries are almost always the Labour party, so no surprise that they brushed it under the carpet. Also, the Muslim community almost always votes as a block. So the slightest suggestion of wrong doing and the Muslim vote can unseat an MP or Councillor. That's why the Labour party always pussy footed around the community.
The conservatives have never commanded much of the Muslim vote anyway. So they can speak more freely without fear of losing seats.
Well done to to the Baroness for speaking out. I agree that a tightening of the voting rules would have yielded a Conservative majority.
pp
Bing o said:
Why can't they call them Pakistanis, rather than Asians - AFAIK it's not the Chinese, Indonesians etc who do this?
But everyone knows she doesn't mean the Chinese or the Indonesians. Asian doesn't include orientals or SE Asians unless you're talking about porn. 
(Actually, doesn't Asian porn really just mean Japanese stuff?)Edited by ShadownINja on Friday 1st October 10:43
Dracoro said:
Bing o said:
Why can't they call them Pakistanis, rather than Asians - AFAIK it's not the Chinese, Indonesians etc who do this?
I think everyone is wise as to which "asians" she's referring to.Calling someone 'Asian' in the US would normally refer to Chinese or SE Asian AFAIK. I'm currently surrounded by Asians, none of whom would feel at home in Bradfordistan...
Bing o said:
Dracoro said:
Bing o said:
Why can't they call them Pakistanis, rather than Asians - AFAIK it's not the Chinese, Indonesians etc who do this?
I think everyone is wise as to which "asians" she's referring to.Calling someone 'Asian' in the US would normally refer to Chinese or SE Asian AFAIK. I'm currently surrounded by Asians, none of whom would feel at home in Bradfordistan...
The Chinese, Indonesians etc. we refer to as orientals.
ShadownINja said:
Bing o said:
Why can't they call them Pakistanis, rather than Asians - AFAIK it's not the Chinese, Indonesians etc who do this?
But everyone knows she doesn't mean the Chinese or the Indonesians. Asian doesn't include orientals or SE Asians unless you're talking about porn. (Actually, doesn't Asian porn really just mean Japanese stuff?)pot calling the kettle black
i love how she says its mainly the labour party winning due to this when clearly in my area the conservatives were just as active in winning their councillor seat due to these wonderful charachters who like to go around knocking on doors of their relatives and marking thier forms for them
course there's been investigations and all your going to see is a wall of silence.
in years gone by we've had some real useless pieces in the council that did eff all apart from get a housing grant on properties they had a vested interest in
thankfully the current one is alot more savvy and active in actual politics than throwing mass parties for his cronies.
asians are more racist to other asians so as soon as one asian stands for election on one side the other side insist another asian MUST stand against him. usually of another caste so its not a political battle anymore - its a caste battle. it gets really dirty at the best of times - windows put through - false allegation leaflets get distributed which go nameless.
cant stand that warsi - with a face as delightful as hers i can see why she went to the tories.
i love how she says its mainly the labour party winning due to this when clearly in my area the conservatives were just as active in winning their councillor seat due to these wonderful charachters who like to go around knocking on doors of their relatives and marking thier forms for them
course there's been investigations and all your going to see is a wall of silence.
in years gone by we've had some real useless pieces in the council that did eff all apart from get a housing grant on properties they had a vested interest in
thankfully the current one is alot more savvy and active in actual politics than throwing mass parties for his cronies.
asians are more racist to other asians so as soon as one asian stands for election on one side the other side insist another asian MUST stand against him. usually of another caste so its not a political battle anymore - its a caste battle. it gets really dirty at the best of times - windows put through - false allegation leaflets get distributed which go nameless.
cant stand that warsi - with a face as delightful as hers i can see why she went to the tories.
dreamz said:
pot calling the kettle black
i love how she says its mainly the labour party winning due to this when clearly in my area the conservatives were just as active in winning their councillor seat due to these wonderful charachters who like to go around knocking on doors of their relatives and marking thier forms for them
course there's been investigations and all your going to see is a wall of silence.
in years gone by we've had some real useless pieces in the council that did eff all apart from get a housing grant on properties they had a vested interest in
thankfully the current one is alot more savvy and active in actual politics than throwing mass parties for his cronies.
asians are more racist to other asians so as soon as one asian stands for election on one side the other side insist another asian MUST stand against him. usually of another caste so its not a political battle anymore - its a caste battle. it gets really dirty at the best of times - windows put through - false allegation leaflets get distributed which go nameless.
cant stand that warsi - with a face as delightful as hers i can see why she went to the tories.
Yeah stupid cow, she should be back at home pumping out child after child whilst covered in a black sheet. i love how she says its mainly the labour party winning due to this when clearly in my area the conservatives were just as active in winning their councillor seat due to these wonderful charachters who like to go around knocking on doors of their relatives and marking thier forms for them
course there's been investigations and all your going to see is a wall of silence.
in years gone by we've had some real useless pieces in the council that did eff all apart from get a housing grant on properties they had a vested interest in
thankfully the current one is alot more savvy and active in actual politics than throwing mass parties for his cronies.
asians are more racist to other asians so as soon as one asian stands for election on one side the other side insist another asian MUST stand against him. usually of another caste so its not a political battle anymore - its a caste battle. it gets really dirty at the best of times - windows put through - false allegation leaflets get distributed which go nameless.
cant stand that warsi - with a face as delightful as hers i can see why she went to the tories.
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