Under fire Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman has been found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices at a special High Court hearing, rendering the poll that saw him elected null and void.
Election Commissioner Richard Mawrey concluded Mr Rahman had breached election rules, agreeing with four voters who initiated the action. Mr Rahman, who denied any wrong-doing, has been banned from standing again.
Mr Rahman has been found guilty of making false statements smearing his Labour opponent John Biggs as a racist; of using taxpayer-funded grants to induce votes; of bribery and corruption and of wielding ‘undue spiritual influence’.
Describing Mr Rahman as an “evasive and discursive witness whose evidence was untruthful on occasion”, Mr Mawrey, who sat as judge, said the mayor had “driven a coach and horses through election law and didn’t care”. He added Bangladesh-born Rahman, who had been elected for a second term in the east London borough, would be “incapable” of standing in the new election.
The four voters mounted the legal challenge under the 1983 Representation of the People Act. Lawyers for the four made a series of allegations – including “personation” in postal voting and at polling stations and ballot paper tampering.
Lawyers for Mr Rahman, who was re-elected for independent party ‘Tower Hamlets First’ last May, described the claims as “invention”, “exaggeration” and “in some cases downright deliberately false allegations”. However the Election Commissioner said that Tower Hamlets First was “never really a party but the alter ego of Lutfur Rahman”.
Alibor Choudhury, an aide of Mr Rahman, was also found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices.
