 |
| Cllr M. Iqbal watches the votes being counted |
Pendle Council and Lancashire Police are being heavily criticised for failing to investigate Election Abuse claims in the Borough.
Two prominent Pendle Councillors allege over 1000 postal votes were bundled into the Council for the Bradley ward of Nelson in this year's May local elections, but the Council and Police have failed to act.
 |
| PBC campaign on election fraud |
He said for the second year running there has been an anomaly in the number of postal votes returned with 1140 returned the day before polling day last year (2023). That equates to 52% of all postal votes for Bradley ward returned on one day, the day before polling day. The second highest amount of postal votes returned on that day was 211 in Brierfield East and Cloverhill. On average across Pendle the postal vote return rate was 65%, but in Bradley ward it was 84%.
In the 2024 local elections the number of postal votes issues varied from the hundreds to the thousands, and in Bradley ward there were 2502 postal votes issued - 1/3 of the ward electorate.
Cllr M. Iqbal says he spoke to the Returning Officer (Rose Rouse) who said she would seal the postbox outside the Town Hall 3-days before polling day, where last year over 1140 votes were 'bundled through'. This year, 4-days before polling day 1059 votes were bundled into the postbox - 50% of all returns on that particular day.
Cllr M. Iqbal says either the people of Bradley have a tendency to hold on to their votes and all post them on the same day, or there is "clear storing and harvesting of postal votes in Bradley ward". He says he has spoken to the Returning Officer about starting a police investigation that wasn't forthcoming because there wasn't any witnesses.
Cllr David Whipp (Lib Dem) echoed Cllr M. Iqbal's concern:
"I heard all sorts of things about a Councillor in Bradley ward going door-to-door, collecting postal votes, collecting postal votes that had not been completed, taking them off people's mantelpiece, and that Mr Mayor is quite frankly, illegal."
Cllr D.Whipp
"During the election, I reported my concerns to the Returning Officer who, eventually, referred the matter to the police, both the Returning Officer and the police did not act in order to satisfy my concerns, and I am raising these issues here as a privilege because I think they are serious, very serious indeed, and they have not been sufficiently investigated by the resource agencies that ought to have done this.
"We find ourselves in a position where there are very serious questions to be asked, and answered, in terms of Bradley ward."
 |
| Rose Rouse under fire |
Following the allegations, Pendle Insider contacted the CEO and Returning Officer of Pendle Council, Rose Rouse, who refused to comment. Lancashire Police also failed to respond.
Pendle Insider has now put in a Freedom of Information request to demand the information regarding the actions taken by the Council and Police to investigate Electoral fraud and abuse, and will update you when we have a response.