...community. Yes, overwhelmingly of one community. ..." [he] knew what he was saying and was right to say it. By all means ask him to explain, but he shouldn't have to apologise"; why has Dominic Grieve apologised? " Hat-tip to Thoughtful: "So that must mean that the Electoral commission are also racist' and must be forced to apologise for telling the truth" because HERE (pdf) in their Electoral Fraud in the UK: Evidence and Issues paper comes the following:
"There are strongly held views, based in particular on reported first-hand experience by some campaigners and elected representatives in particular, that electoral fraud is more likely to be committed by or in support of candidates standing for election in areas which are largely or predominately populated by some South Asian communities, specifically those with roots in parts of Pakistan or Bangladesh. These concerns reflect issues also highlighted by a small number of previous studies of political and electoral participation. These studies have suggested that extended family and community networks may have been mobilised to secure the support of large numbers of electors in some areas, effectively constituting a ‘block vote’ – although this does not necessarily involve electoral fraud. They also argue that the wider availability of postal voting in Great Britain since 2001 may have increased the risk of electoral fraud associated with this approach, as the greater safeguards of secrecy provided in polling stations are removed." [my emphasis]
Thoughful's list of clearly 'South Asian' names led me to dig further: the government's own website: "Postal voting and electoral fraud 2001-09 - Commons Library Standard Note", HERE where you can download their pdf file: you will read (part 8, Chronology) that there have been at least 42 convictions for electoral fraud in the UK in the period 2000–2007; here are those named in the government's own paper: Mohammed Hussain, Mohammed Choudhary, Ahmad Ali, Mozaquir Ali, Manzoor Hussain, Dessie Stewart, Jamshed Khan, Iftkhar Hussain, Khurshid Ahmed, Sajid Mehmood, Mohammed Khan, Naseem Akhtar, Adeel Hanif , Maqbool Hussein, Tariq Mahmood, Haroon Rashid (later cleared) Jamshed Khan, Reis Khan, Eshaq Khan, Mohammed Anzal Anwar, Norman Whitlock, Mohammed Chaudhary Saghir, Abdul Razaq, Raja Akhtar, Mohammed Khaliq , John Hall, Nawaz Khan, Ian Withers (…of Antrim was fined 1p; he had refused to give his national insurance number and was arrested for electoral fraud), Mahboob Khan, Basharat Khan, Arshad Raja, Altaf Khan, Gulnawaz Khan, Anisur Rahman...do you see what it is yet? It is a cross party problem BUT it IS clearly a problem and overwhelmingly within ONE community!
Pakistani MPs and MEPs from all parties have [edit] complained about what Dominic Grieve said, plus Mohammed Shafiq (chief exec Ramadhan Foundation and usually sensible) said: "Mr. Grieve's mentioned one incident in Slough which was dealt with by the courts and had not produced any further evidence of an endemic problem with corruption." [Link] Jeez, I doubt washing in the Pool of Siloam would help such blindness.
2 comments:
Too much stepping on egg shells. As I said somewhere else on your blog last year (I think) why does the fraud sometimes take place in areas where it doesn't make any difference to the result - are these trial runs for bigger attempts?
Good point! Very probably something similar.
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