Florence Cook

This comes after the committee called for a review of the Metropolitan Police’s investigations of the electoral fraud during Tower Hamlets’ 2014 Mayoral election.

In 2015, Luftur Rahman was removed as mayor of Tower Hamlets and was given a five year ban from standing again. He was found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices.

The big question at the meeting was whether suitable changes had been made to ensure the mayoral elections in May will be free of problems.

Those being questioned claimed the public’s confidence in a fair and legal election is the main priority.

The Chief Executive of the Electoral Commission, Claire Bassett, faced particular scrutiny over concerns about a new political party, Aspire. The party’s logo is the same as the logo of Tower Hamlets First, the party of former mayor Mr Rahman.

Tower Hamlets Conservative councillor, Peter Gold, finds this shocking.

“A lot of our people will identify with the symbol, rather than possibly a candidate name or a voter name. And the fact is that the emblem of Aspire is the same emblem as Tower Hamlets First and the same emblem of the political party the Electoral Commission refused.”

Ms Bassett confirmed she would further review this matter.

Chief Executive of Tower Hamlets Council, Will Tuckley, was questioned by the committee and said the police and council are working together.

“There’s more involvement by the police in looking after the electoral process in Tower Hamlets than there is anywhere else in the country. So we will have a police officer at every polling station, nowhere else goes that far. That’s a really important commitment.”

Tower Hamlets borough commander, Sue Williams, assured the committee officers are undergoing extra training in order to combat the possibility of electoral fraud.  She said lessons have been learnt since 2014.

A resident  of the borough, Mark Bayne, told City News the borough was “sick and tired of politics”.

 

 

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