UK election fraud probe shows evidence of 'widespread' corruption » Local Government » 24dash.com

Human rights investigators probing alleged election fraud in the UK are visiting London and Brighton next week to take evidence.

The inquiry has been launched by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog.

A resolution signed by 18 Assembly members - national politicians from the Council's 46 member countries - cites "a growing body of evidence that widespread absent vote fraud is taking place in the United Kingdom".

The UK Electoral Commission warned of possible abuses and urged tighter security after postal and proxy voting on demand was introduced in 2001.

It repeated warnings of possible abuses in 2004 when nothing had changed.

Then in 2005, a judge hearing a case of about alleged postal voting fiddles in Birmingham said the evidence of electoral fraud "would disgrace a banana republic".

Now the system is under the human rights spotlight thanks to a resolution whose signatories include Tory MPs David Wilshire, Christopher Chope, Christopher Fraser, Humfrey Malins and Nigel Evans, Liberal Democrat Nick Harvey and Tory peers Gloria Hooper and Jill Knight. Other signatories include four Russian and two Polish MPs.

The Assembly's Monitoring Committee appointed former German Justice Minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin and Polish Senator Urszula Gacek to look into allegations of irregularities involving postal and absentee votes in Birmingham, Blackburn, Coventry and London.

The pair travel to Brighton on Monday to attend a Conference of the Association of Electoral Administrators. They then go to London to interview MPs expected to include Bridget Prentice, parliamentary under-secretary responsible for reform of electoral administration at the Department of Constitutional Affairs.

Visits have also been arranged to representatives of the Electoral Commission, the Committee of Standards in Public Life, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Electoral Reform Society.

Copyright Press Association 2007.