Call for postal vote shake-up

System is wide open to abuse — councillor
AN angry Oldham councillor is seeking a review of the postal voting system after allegations of widespread abuse in recent elections.

Liberal Democrat councillor Brian Lord will propose a motion at the next council meeting asking members to call on support from MPs for postal voting amendments and the introduction of eligibility criteria.

He will also ask council chief executive Charlie Parker to write to the Electoral Commission to seek a review of the system.

He claims that the current system is wide open to abuse, arguing there are bed-sits with large numbers of adults registered to vote and people registered at several addresses.

He said: “I hear many local people complaining bitterly about this abuse of the postal voting system and asking why people don’t have to prove, in person, that they are entitled to a vote.

“Clearly there would have to be some facility to allow those who couldn’t physically get to register still to be able have a vote.

“This worked well before the present system was introduced so presumably it could work again.

“As the motion only asks for the system to be looked into and amended I am hopeful that all the borough’s councillors will get behind it.”

Councillor Lord, who represents the Saddleworth West and Lees ward, says that such abuse makes a mockery of the one person, one vote notion.

Allegations of vote-rigging in the borough have been made in the past, with police officers investigating suspicious applications made during the all-postal local elections in 2004.

A police and council investigation was carried out in 2003 after hundreds of votes were cast from a handful of houses.

Councillor Mohammed Masud is expected to second the motion which will be heard at the meeting on Wednesday, December 15.