by
Les May
I
had hoped that the opposition parties in Rochdale would do their
job and hold Allen Brett to account for his decision not to ask for
the resignation of Labour Councillor Faisal Rana who admitted to
soliciting two votes in the local election in May this year. After a
single feeble complaint by Lib-Dem leader Andy Kelly, no more has
been heard from either party. Indeed there seems to be no record of
the Tories saying anything, effectively they are condoning Rana’s
behaviour.
Disappointed,
but not surprised, on 14 September 2018 I wrote the following letter
to Councillor Faisal Rana. As
a matter of courtesy and for
information,
I
sent a copy
to the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive of Rochdale MBC.
“I
have been aware since mid August that you have received a police
caution for electoral offences relating to the poll of 3 May 2018.
Until a few days ago I had not read the transcript of the interview
which you gave to Sky News. I assume that the transcript is a true
and correct record of what you said.
I
am particularly concerned with the paragraph which reads:
‘I
legally registered my votes by providing my genuine national
insurance number, date of birth and addresses and when I received
these through the post I thought it would have been OK and that is
why they issued me two ballots for two constituencies’.
In
my view this appears to imply that the electoral services of RMBC
should have checked for a duplication of national insurance numbers
and dates of birth, and informed you of the illegal nature of your
actions.
From
my own experience registering
to take part in the ballot is an active process. It
is necessary to provide an
address at one is
resident in order to receive a ballot paper at that address. Ditto
for a postal vote. I assume that you
are quite properly
registered at the address at which you
reside permanently with your
family and that you
legitimately used
that vote in that ward.
What
is in question is the
‘other’ address, which I
assume was
in
the ward in which you
stood as a candidate, and
what legitimate interest you
had
in the property at that
address which you considered
gave you an entitlement to
register yourself
at that address and apply
for a postal vote to be sent to that address.
As a resident of Rochdale
Metropolitan Borough I would like answers to the following questions
within 15 working days of the date of this correspondence.
What
was the address used to apply for a second vote?
What
legitimate interest did you have in the property identified by that
address?
Were
you a tenant of the property identified by that address?
Were
you the owner of the property identified by that
address?”
The
15 working days were up last Friday. I
have
not had a reply from Councillor Rana or an acknowledgement from the
other two recipients.
Councillor
Rana clearly does not want us to know the address at which he
registered in order to get his second vote or
why he thought he was entitled to two votes.
The
2017-18
electoral
register for
the Spotland and Falinge ward shows that a Faisal Rana is registered
at 170c Spotland Road, together
with Hassan Tehzeeb and Amna Kiran.
This
is a change from the three previous registers, 2014-2017, when a
Susan Williams was registered at this address.
So
just why did Councillor Rana think that he had an entitlement to a
second vote. Was it because he was now claiming
to be resident
at this address or was it that
the change in occupancy of 170c Spotland Road now
gave
him a convenient address at which to register and to receive the
papers enabling him to cast his second
vote?
If
this is indeed the case then it suggests that both the police and the
Labour leader have not been so diligent as perhaps
they
might have been in enquiring much
more
closely into Faisal Rana’s actions and motivation. If
there is another explanation, then what legitimate interest did he
have in 170c Spotland Road?
A
number of people, including a fellow councillor, have come forward to
act as
apologists for Councillor Rana seemingly
without reflecting upon the morality of the act of deliberately
soliciting a second vote and upon the way that his actions have
tainted
the Labour party. I’ve
heard stories about his being so contrite that he was in tears, that
he undertook a pilgrimage out of contrition and perhaps most
ludicrous of all, that he should
not be forced to resign
because
if he did
it would lead to a bye-election in the ward and this would cost the
town £50,000. None
of this cuts any ice with me.
Electoral
fraud is
not a minor matter. This is what the Pickles’ review into
electoral fraud, Securing the Ballot
had to say:
‘Electoral fraud and
corruption is intertwined with other forms of crime as well. Local
authorities have a large procurement role. A group of people who
cheat their way to power are unlikely to hold a higher moral standard
when handing out public contracts, or when making quasi-judicial
decision on planning and licensing. Electoral registration fraud is
connected with financial crime
and illegal immigration.’
In other words there is a moral
as well as a legal dimension to a Councillor deliberately seeking to
obtain a second vote.
Councillor
Rana has shown contempt for electoral law and the basic premise of
our democracy, ‘one
man, one vote’.
He actively sought to obtain for himself a second vote, but he lacks
the moral fibre to admit that he did wrong and to
do
the honourable thing by stepping down. By this he taints Labour as a
party that will tolerate electoral fraud for
the sake
of expediency.
In
May 2018 a large number of Labour party members went on record as
showing their support for Jacqui Beswick being elected as leader.
From
what I hear of this lady she would not have been so tolerant of
Faisal Rana’s wrongdoing as Allen Brett. Perhaps
it is time for Labour party members to once again let their views be
known.
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