Five people arrested on suspicion of local election fraud offences

[1andrew1]

Will be interesting to learn more about this. I guess we all want to know which party those arrested were helping and if this will impact upon the upcoming by-election in Makerfield.

Five people in Tameside have been arrested on suspicion of fraud offences, police say.

It follows the local elections in England earlier this month.

The five people – four men and a woman aged between 23 and 47 – were arrested at addresses in Tameside this morning, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has announced.

They remain in custody.

The force says that it received reports surrounding concerns about candidates within St Peter's ward in the days up to and following the election on 7 May.

GMP adds that it is investigating the process of how candidates were put forward and represented in the ward, and if this adhered to the relevant legislation and electoral procedures.

Officers are working closely with the Electoral Commission and local partners, they add.

https://news.sky.com/story/starmer-l...tions-12593360

[nomadking]

Link

The Mill, a Manchester-based publication, had investigated claims that individuals were encouraged to stand as independent candidates in the St Peter’s ward election in May to split opposition votes and benefit Labour.
Atta Ul-Rasool, the Labour candidate, won the St Peter’s ward seat with 177 votes more than Ahmed Mehmood, an independent candidate, and was the only Labour candidate to win a seat in Tameside.
Two other independent candidates, Marie Fairhurst and Muhammad Ali, received a combined 291 votes. The Mill reported that both candidates had little visible campaign presence and did not respond to attempts to contact them during the election campaign.
After the result, the Tameside Correspondent reported that Fairhurst said she had not been aware she was standing as a candidate.

Putting some forward as a candidate without their knowledge is a new one. Falsely putting people forward as Labour party members and using their vote to select MPs and councillors has been rife for decades.
She got 174 votes. Not bad for a fake candidate.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by nomadking

Link
Putting some forward as a candidate without their knowledge is a new one. Falsely putting people forward as Labour party members and using their vote to select MPs and councillors has been rife for decades.
She got 174 votes. Not bad for a fake candidate.

The Mill is a good investigative publication. This is a highly unusual situation from my memory.