‘Poll fraud up among Pakistanis, B’deshis’

LONDON : Britain may be home of the “mother of parliaments” but the country’s democratic foundations are being undermined by electoral fraud in communities of Pakistani and Bangladeshi-origin, a strongly-worded government report said on Friday.

Commissioned by former premier David Cameron in the wake of electoral fraud in the London borough of Tower Hamlets in 2015, the report by Eric Pickles, former communities secretary, called for unprecedented reforms to counter malpractices in the communities.

Politically correct over-sensitivities about ethnicity and religion are responsible for state institutions turning a blind eye to such electoral fraud, the report said, detailing several instances in which courts had convicted people between 2005 and 2015.

“Evidence was presented of pressure being put on vulnerable members of some ethnic minority communities, particularly women and young people, to vote according to the will of the elders, especially in communities of Pakistani and Bangladeshi background,” the report said.

In Tower Hamlets, with a large population of Bangladeshi origin, sitting mayor Lutfur Rahman was removed from office in April 2015 and his election declared void after he was found guilty of electoral fraud.

Pickles said: “Last year’s court ruling in Tower Hamlets was a wake-up call that state bodies need to do far more to stamp out corruption and restore public confidence. It was local residents who lost out from the crooked politicians who bullied them and wasted their money.”

The report mentioned evidence of people in the two communities facing intimidation and threats of “burning in hell”, or that they were “not a good Muslim” if they did not vote for preferred candidates.