Vote-rigging mayor loses bid to beat ban

‘BANANA republic’ mayor Lutfur Rahman was slapped down by judges yesterday as he tried to overturn his five-year ban on standing for public office.

Rahman was booted out of office for rigging an election but went to the High Court complaining his human rights had been breached.

His bid ended in humiliation when Lord Justice Lloyd Jones and Mr Justice Supperstone refused his application.

Two years ago four voters took Rahman to an election court which found him guilty of fixing the ballot to become mayor of Tower Hamlets in East London. Electoral judge Richard Mawrey QC ruled Rahman’s industrial-scale vote rigging would shame a ‘banana republic’.

It fell to those same voters, at their own expense, to defend the judge’s ruling as Rahman launched a High Court action to overturn his ban.

Rahman’s QC Paul Bowen told the judges his client’s human rights had been breached.

He argued that, because police and prosecutors had decided after the election court ruling not to bring any criminal charges against Rahman, he should be cleared of that court’s verdict that he was ‘personally guilty’ of stealing the election. The judges rejected this.