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Lib-Dems accused of postal-vote hypocrisy
Reporter: Richard Hooton
Date online: 22 December 2010
LIB-DEMS have been accused of hypocrisy after calling for a crackdown on postal voting while collecting voters completed forms.
At last week’s full meeting of Oldham Council, Lib-Dem councillor Brian Lord said postal voting is open to widescale abuse and called for a review.
However, residents have complained that they have been sent postal voting forms for the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-electon by the Lib-Dems and then asked to complete them and return them to the party’s headquarters.
At the meeting, Councillor Lord alerted fellow councillors to practices that involve multiple applications for votes from bedsits, and people handing in boxes of completed postal vote forms.
He suggested only those who were physically unable to get to a polling station should get a postal vote.
Councillors backed his call to press the Electoral Commission for a review.
Gwyneth Dawson, from Greenfield, said she was inundated with Lib-Dem election material at the last vote in May and is being similarly bombarded again, receiving three items in as many days.
She said: “They are pressing for your postal vote now. One said ‘because of the weather if you want a postal vote, fill out an application form and we will take it to save you going out in the snow’.
“They would have your address, date of birth and signature and you don’t know whose hands it is going into.”
Mrs Dawson has asked the council if the practice is legal and been told there’s nothing it can do to stop it.
Independent parish councillor Ken Hulme questioned if Councillor Lord had a sense of irony. Councillor Hulme has received e-mails from residents pointing out the practice and also questioning the legality.
He said: “Now it isn’t illegal for the Lib-Dems to solicit and collect postal voting forms — but is it within the spirit of Councillor Lord’s statement to Oldham Council? And is it good practice for a party claiming to be cleaning up local politics?”
Councillor Lord said: “I stand by what I said. The trouble is that as long as the system is in place and other people are using it we have to use it. We can’t sit back and let everyone else collect postal votes if we are not doing it. I would prefer it to be scrapped and have a level playing field.”
Candidates declared so far in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election:
Debbie Abrahams (Labour), Elwyn Watkins (Liberal Democrat), Kashif Ali (Conservative), Paul Nuttall (UKIP), Peter Allen (Green), Stephen Morris (English Democrats) and Nick Delves (Monster Raving Loony Party).
Comments
Those who opposed the abolition of slavery said just the same as Cllr. Lord - "as long as other people do it, we have to as well." No you don't Cllr. Lord - you should do what you believe to be the right thing. This is the excuse of hypocrites throughout the ages, used to justify all manner of dishonest and immoral practices.
People should only get a postal vote if they cannot walk to the polling station.There are small minority of voters in Oldham who abuse the system . Time to scrap it for the able bodied. And I agree with MarkH at the amount of leaflets the Lib Dems keep pushing through my letterbox especially at the last election
Time to put the Lib-Dems in the Box, me thinks....
The outcome would be the same as MP Wollas.... banned for 3 years!..........
Got a Christmas card off these clowns........straight in the bin, alomg with the rest of the rubbish coming through my letterbox from these imbeciles.
When done Cllr Lord, your predessors pioneered the Great Reform Act through the Commons in about 1830 to rid the country of its "Rotton Boroughs" and corrupt election practices. Now you say you cannot take a moral stand on dubious practices in the present postal vote system, in fact you will openly endorse the recruitment of even more absent voters because everyone is doing it! God help us you are just a bunch of Quislings!
I'll bet that there were a few squeeky, squirming bums in the council chamber when postal voting was discussed. There would be at least a few in there, from all parties, who have benefited from electors being 'assisted' with filling in their postal votes.
For the Lib-Dems, in particular, to raise this issue was just one more example of them saying one thing and doing another.
The Liberals are very frightened they are going to be shown up at the election, which there thinking is right and going to be sent packing. Postal votes have been going for many years, and it is like any system it has its problems. Watkins will try every trick, but will he turn to the court again. Pull out Mr Watkins your tricks are not going to work this time. You cannot trust them, they have brought Cleggs deputy to do some job trying to get the students to go to college.
The Lib-Dems are now desperate for our votes as they have been shown up by MPs in their own party, we are getting literature through our letter box almost every day and it goes in the recycle bin. How can we trust them now, because to vote for them, we are effectively voting Tory, and who would want to do that. From day one of the Coalition government they have all told us a pack of lies, everything they say, they do the opposite. The Lib-Demms are just the Tories puppets, they have no say.
Have Your Say
"Councillor Lord said: “I stand by what I said. The trouble is that as long as the system is in place and other people are using it we have to use it. We can’t sit back and let everyone else collect postal votes if we are not doing it."
I have only ever received this kind of mail from the Lib-Dems, never from any other party.
It also seems that I'm not only one getting annoyed by the amount of rubbish polluting my letterbox by the Lib-Dems.
By MarkH @ 22/12/2010 16:25:47