Published: Monday, 28th July, 2008 9:00am

Election fraud measures not enough, says ousted councillor

AN EX-POLITICIAN, who was ousted from her seat after 23-years because of election fraud, says new plans to tighten up postal voting produces are not good enough.

Labour's Lydia Simmons hit the headlines earlier this year when a special election court found former Tory Eshaq Khan and his agents guilty of vote rigging in Slough central ward's local elections in May 2007 , which meant he beat Mrs Simmons by 120 votes.

The court heard how the cheats cast votes pretending to be other people - many of whom were bogus or registered to live in overcrowded or derelict homes across the borough.

On Friday, the Electoral Commission called for the election time table to be increased from 17 days to 25 days to ensure there is enough time available for printing and processing postal votes.

But Mrs Simmons,70, said: "Although it is a step in the right direction, I do feel more needs to be done and that the timetable needs to be longer. Councils are very busy and need at least 30 days. In my case, I knew that fraud was happening and because the council didn't have enough time and their hands were tied - they couldn't do anything so we had to go through other channels.

"Election fraud has changed my life - I could still have been a councillor. So I think they need to do a lot more to stop postal voting fraud. I think they should scrap postal votes for people who are fit and well and only allow it for the elderly, ill, students or those on holiday."

The report by the Electoral Commission also quizzed 1,000 people and found that 51 per cent thought postal voting is now safe from fraud and abuse - which is a 10 per cent rise from last year.

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