{In Apri 2000 Labour council leader lose his seat. Clr Malooim seems to COUNCIL LEADER REPORTED FOR ALLEGED BALLOT RIGGI lain Malcolm faced a tough election fight against a strong Conservative candid have taken matters into his own hands and was subsequently accused of b manipulating the postal vote, a systern that Labour had recently introduced to help them ‘increase’ turnout. Labour ensured that as many residents as possible were registered fora postal ‘vote and assured them that there was nothing complicated about the process and they even offered to help post them. ‘During the campaign it became increasingly obvious that drastic action was ‘needed to stop Clr Malcolm losing his seat. Labour party activists were instructed to collect any postal voting envelopes that hadn't been posted but instead of posting them he asked them to hand them over to him. ‘A crucial part of the strategy was to ensure that the postal votes from care homes, sheltered accommodation and OAP bungalows were collected in person. He entrusted this task to an unsuspecting Labour party member. He tol-him to take al the envelopes to his house and he would collect them later. When Glir Malcolm arrived he was invited into the house where a big pile of envelopes were waiting for him. But much to the dismay of this lifelong Labour supporter and his wife he opened the envelopes in ther front room and removed the ballot papers. Any votes for Labour were returned tothe envelope ‘and resealed and any votes for the Conservatives were destroyed. On May Sth the election result was announced and lain Malooim was declared the winner by ust 76 votes. ain Malcolm celebrated his victory by announcing toa handful of associates that he had cheated the Conservative out of victory by destroying her votes and said that he'd done what he'd needed to do to ensure that no Tory In the coming months the couple who witnessed lan ‘Malcolm's antics agonised ‘over whether they should tell anyone or not. But ‘eventually their honesty got the beter of them and they told the chairman ofthe South Shields Labour part. She in turn told the then MP for South Shields, Dr David Clarke. Both the ‘chair and Dr ‘Clarke met with the couple and took detailed statements of what ‘had happened. — Dr Clarke was concerned about te integrity ancimpartiatity of the focal ancie- gional Labour parties and decided to take advice from party officials in London. ‘The chair and Or Clarke subsequently made a formal complaint to the police. ‘They were interviewed and statements were taken. The police agreed to camry ‘out an investigation into the matter and Cllr Malcolm was duly interviewed. ‘Without waming the police then contacted Dr Clarke and the chair and advised them that no further action would be taken. The reason they gave was that the complaint had been made outside of the permitted time ‘scale. However, new evidence suggests that the main witness was ‘asked’ to withdraw his ‘complaint for the benefit of the party. Perhaps a better phrase would be emotional blackmail. ‘One thing that did come out of this incident was that lain Malcolm was removed from Labour's Parliamentary pane! (he was believed to be the favourite to eplace Dr larke) and David Miliband was subsequent parachuted into replace ‘Dr Clarke who was then promptly made a peer and given a seat in the House ‘As far as the people of South Tyneside are concerned, this murky affair raises ‘a number of serious issues and brings into question the integrity and honesty of the council leader. I's time for an independent investigation into what cally happened, however, we all know this is very unlikely given the council's reluctance to hold an inquiry into the 2007 election and the saga of the 18 ‘missing ballot boxes. CONTACT DETAILS ‘Ahmed Khan: 07827 305162 (mobile) COCK Cuneo} Re ee UL) 0191 454 0294 (home) POR ICUrnn See CuSO UL naas Jim Hodgson: james.hodgson@blueyonder.co.uk Rarer ur eos Roark cu www.twitter.com/voteforjim Pirmn ae uc DN SUMAN aS Uae aN Teen nt cra ane usc aca es nC can always tell when an election is imminent by the sudden Preece al Sieur ceo Po etme Meme Rue ec och time for a flood of leatlets to hit our doormats, and amongst them RCC e Meare eM Ly Pa cue Len cM ean ome ecient Une icg who are just Conservatives in a different guise. These are the Rau en ee eu Sn they stood in Beacon and Bents. Their candidate - Pat Crozier eo Coe Mec U ey CCM CMe mina OO AI Ro eid ee aOR enn U uncon Dee esau om EN Fortunately the people of Beacon and Bents are too clever to fall Jferhanded tricks of other so called ‘opposition’ groups ‘and realise that the only certain way of ridéing themselves of Labour is to vote strategically by voting for the only candidate Poorer emee UL Seu e nL Concerneg Dil i and do not let anyone else Commission have produced a SUPPORTERS COMPLETE YOUR BALLOT DON'T LET ANYONE ELSE ballot paper into the larger er ‘ALWAYS TAKE IT TO THE REMEMBER IT 1S YOUR ‘SEND YOUR POSTAL VOTE BAL the last minute but if you don} poling station on Election Day) IF ANYONE TRIES TO HELP YOUNAGAINo be TEV AREEREAION ‘Altematively ring the elections | can collect it.