from the London DAILY MAIL website:

The London Mayoral election is at serious risk of being stolen

Last updated at 12:13 PM on 2nd March 2012

Picture the scene on the evening of Friday 4 May this year.

Ken Livingstone has just been re-elected to his old job of Mayor of London by the narrowest of margins. Congratulatory telegrams come in from Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. Lee Jasper is announced among the new appointments to City Hall.

Boris Johnson refuses to say if he will seek a return to the House of Commons at a future by-election. The pollsters have been confounded as they had shown a narrow win for Boris.

The evidence of voter fraud allegedly taking place in Tower Hamlets, risks the London Mayoral election between Ken Livingstone, left, and Boris Johnson, right, says Harry Phibbs

More from Harry Phibbs...

Then it emerges that Livingstone's narrow victory was entirely due to one borough. That of Tower Hamlets where there have been remarkably sharp increases in turnout, the number of voters on the register and share of the vote received by Livingstone.

The evidence of massive voter fraud taking place in Tower Hamlets is overwhelming. 'Postal vote farming' where extra names are registered at an address, is not an isolated or random occurrence but is taking place systematically.

The Evening Standard has investigated and found that 'dozens of flats are holding up to eight people per bedroom, according to the electoral register.'

In one case 12 adults are still listed as voters at a three-bedroom flat in Mile End despite having moved out about four months before officials gathered data for the register. A lettings agent said that only 'three or four' of those named had ever lived there.

Cllr Peter Golds, the Conservative opposition leader of the council, has written on Conservative Home this morning about the failure for anyone to take action.

'In 2009 I handed over to the police copies of emails regarding postal vote farming,' he writes. 'The police spoke to the sender who "promised not to do it again" and therefore indicated a prosecution would not be in "the public interest", despite the fine for this being £5,000.

'The electoral commission advises that concerned citizens approach the town hall, who then ask you to send your evidence to the police, who go back to the electoral commission on this merry go round of inertia.'

Cllr Golds adds there is similar indifference to 'appalling intimidation at polling stations.'

Evidence: In one case 12 adults are still listed as voters at a three-bedroom flat in Mile End despite having moved out before officials gathered register data

This is not a new problem. The 2008 mayoral election saw the Labour share of the vote sharply increase in Tower Hamlets against the trend elsewhere. In the 2004 results Livingstone beat the then Conservative candidate Steve Norris by 16,229 to 10,157.

In the 2008 results we saw Livingstone beat Boris Johnson in that borough by 37,361 to 17,509.

More...

Then we had in April 2010, just before the General Election, an increase in the electorate of 7,000 recorded in just one month.

This is a council where later that year the directly elected Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, stood as an independent but with the support of Livingstone against the official Labour candidate.

Reassurance: Tory MP Gary Streeter, said the Electoral Commission had been assured by the police and Tower Hamlets that the issue was being treated seriously

Tower Hamlets Council's response is to deny that there is a problem and of course there is no suggestion any of the participants in recent elections were party to any fraud.

'No cases of electoral fraud have been found in Tower Hamlets,' A council spokesman said, adding that the borough 'suffers from very high levels of overcrowding.'

So if the council can't or won't act, who will? What is the Electoral Commission doing about this? Nothing. It has a budget of £24million but when I rang them it became all too clear that it has no power to ensure free and fair elections take place - merely to offer 'guidance.'

It could act as a whistle blower but won't even do that.

When the Conservative MP Lee Scott raised the matter in Parliament he was told by his colleague Gary Streeter MP, who speaks on their behalf of the Electoral Commission, that 'the Commission has been assured by the police and Tower Hamlets electoral registration officer (ERO) that the issue is being treated with the appropriate seriousness.'

Streeter added: 'The Electoral Commission informs me that it has made no specific assessment of the level of (a) over registration or (b) fraudulent registration in the London borough of Tower Hamlets.'

Still all the boxes are ticked: 'The Commission monitors the performance of electoral registration officers (EROs) in Great Britain, including their plans for preventing and detecting electoral malpractice. The most recent report of performance against the standards set by the Commission found that the ERO for Tower Hamlets exceeded this standard in 2010.'

The Cabinet Office Minister Mark Harper, also proposes to do nothing - while 'taking the matter very seriously', of course.

So there we are. There is a serious risk of the election for Mayor of London being stolen yet nothing is being done to avert this from happening in the mother of democracy.

Perhaps we need some international observers from developing countries to help us out. We seem to be unable to manage to ensure a democratic election takes place.

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Comments (29)

Here's what other readers have said. Why not debate this issue live on our message boards.

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these are not our people!

- simon, UK, 04/3/2012 14:28

Click to rate Rating 21

''The political class'' has turned UK into an EU ''banana republic'' Only people Postal voting should be Disabled,or people who have trouble walking. Bread and circuses, YET the British public will Still vote for them lib-lab-con mediocrities

- robin L, London,England, 04/3/2012 09:26

Click to rate Rating 26

In the distant past an offense like this would have been almost treasonable, now it's treated with a kind of deliberate indifference. Someone should be in the police cells, it's a disgrace that undermines the very foundation of government.

- ron, Cumbria, 04/3/2012 03:49

Click to rate Rating 29

If I lived in London neither Johnson nor Livingstone would get my vote.

- there are other , candidates, 03/3/2012 17:02

Click to rate Rating 9

When the BNP won its first council seat in Tower Hamlets left wing activists moved in and showed the locals how to get the result they wanted. Now Islamic extremists are in control. Labour has been hoisted by their own petard.

- James J, London, 03/3/2012 16:14

Click to rate Rating 45

The only answer to all this nonsense is to abolish Postal Voting and to require voters to produce adequate identification at the polling booth. NuLab refused to do anything of the sort presumably because in areas like Tower Hamlets they would lose not only votes but alienate certain ethnic groups something which of course they would never contemplate. Will we see a change to the rules before the next election ? I doubt it. For the NuconLibDems to do something they would have to admit the unspeakable, namely that some among certain ethnic groups have unashamedly brought their own ' democratic ' habits with them.

- garibaldi, lowestoft, 03/3/2012 12:27

Click to rate Rating 32

Even a quick glance at Ken Livingstone's life would reveal him as totally unsuited to office. Goodness knows what skeletons he's got in his closet. Shame we don't have journalists who investigate and report things like this, instead of telling what some has-been or wannabe celebrity is wearing!

- Soy Sauce, London, 03/3/2012 11:30

Click to rate Rating 22

When the BNP won its first council seat in Tower Hamlets left wing activists flooded in to ensure it never happened again. They taught the locals how it could be done and now Labour has been hoisted by its own petard in the borough with Islamic militants in charge. The properties are so overcrowded that if the electoral register was right they would need to have the highest number of houses in multiple occupation ever recorded!

- James J, London, 03/3/2012 11:25

Click to rate Rating 29

(1) Stop all postal voting - in all elections, and make people pring passport or driving licence photo ID to polling station [take off burkas as necessary] (2) Ensure all these properties in Tower Hamlets are properly reigstered as Houses of Multiple Occupancy and issue fines if not.

- Jan, London, 03/3/2012 11:10

Click to rate Rating 40

BORIS IS CERTAINLY NOT A BUFFOON. HE IS A BRILLIANT MAN. REGRETFULLY HE DOES LAUGH QUITE A BIT. BUT HE DOES COME UP WITH THE IMPORTANT CRITICISMS OF THE RULING PARTIES. LET BORIS BE THE FUTURE LEADER OF OUR GREAT COUNTRY. THE LIMITED LIABILITY OF ALL BUSINESSES MUST BE RETRACTED. tHERE ARE THOUSANDS OF SMALL COMPANIES BEING SET UP MERELY TO AVOID THE PAYMENT OF TAX OVER THE RATE OF 20%,. uGHHHHHHHHHH I LAMENT FOR BRITAIN IN THE FUTURE FROM WHJAT i OBSERVE NOW. IN FACT I HAD THAT OPINION FOR THE PAST 50 YEARS PLUS.

- bill green, London, uk, 03/3/2012 10:49

Click to rate Rating 12

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Tuesday 6 March 2012

DAILY MAIL blogger on Tower Hamlets vote fraud: "The London Mayoral election is at serious risk of being stolen "