'Personation' claims wards are revealed

CALL for identification... Electoral Commission say voters should have to provide ID.

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POLICE have revealed that the four allegations of electoral fraud at this month's Oldham Council elections came from St Mary's and Werneth.

The Chronicle reported earlier this month that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) are investigating four allegations of "personation" - an offence where an individual votes as someone else - reported after May 5's local elections.

One woman claimed her brother arrived at the polling station on voting day only to find out that someone had already used his vote, she added: "Voting system was not fair, my brother and a few others I know went to vote and someone had already voted under their name. How can this be justified as a true result?"

GMP has now confirmed that two of the allegations were made in the St Mary's ward and the other two were made in the Werneth ward.

In St Mary's, former Labour Cabinet member Arooj Shah lost her seat, losing out by 289 votes to independent Aftab Hussain who received 2,190 votes.

Labour's Fida Hussain held on to his seat in Werneth, securing 2,391 votes.

GMP has not received any further electoral fraud allegations since the Chronicle first reported the four personation complaints. Investigations are still ongoing.

The allegations may well have highlighted how easy it might be to vote under someone else's name.

Risk

No identification is required to cast a vote and people are simply asked for their name and address.

Independent election watchdog, the Electoral Commission, has called for voters to require a form of identification at polling stations to reduce the risk of personation.

Although there is no record available for the amount of voting fraud allegations made in Oldham at last year's local election, there were just six claims made throughout Greater Manchester as a whole in 2015.

Anyone with information should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 080 555 111.