Election fraud row hits Parliament after Nick Brown's concerns

Jan 15 2010 by William Green, The Journal

“The first is that the count should be announced as soon as the people have voted. And the second is that it should be the right result,” she said.

The Liberal Democrats also hit out at Nick Brown’s claims their colleagues who run Newcastle City Council could not be trusted with ballot boxes overnight.

Newcastle and Northumberland councils will not begin counts until the morning after as speculation grows the general election will be held on May 6. Local Lib Dems described the claims as “vile”, and now the party’s Chief Whip in the Commons has written to Mr Brown to comment about his comments.

In a letter to Mr Brown, Lib Dem Chief Whip Paul Burstow said he was “surprised” by the comments and urged him to report any concerns to the police.

“The reporting suggests that you are accusing the ruling group on the council of vote rigging because the count is being held on the Friday,” he said.

“I believe that unless you have evidence this is an unfounded attack on the integrity and independence of the officials responsible for running and overseeing the electoral process. You will know very well that these officials are not affiliated to any party.

“If you have evidence of any conspiracy to rig the election you should be passing it to the police not issuing Press releases condemning officials who are in no position to defend themselves. I hope that you will take this opportunity to apologise to the officials concerned and withdraw your remarks. But Mr Brown, MP for Newcastle East and Wallsend, said: “I have made no attack on public officials. My criticisms are directed at the Liberal Democrat party in Newcastle.”

He added: “The reasons that the ballots are counted immediately after the polls close is to safeguard the integrity of the system.”