Nigel Farage blasts ‘rotten’ Peterborough by-election after experts say poll was like being in corrupt Kazakhstan
NIGEL Farage today cast doubt on Labour's win in the Peterborough by-election - after experts said it was "like Kazakhstan".
The Brexit Party leader claimed the seat was a "rotten borough" because of how many dodgy postal votes were cast.
Labour narrowly held on to the seat earlier this month, beating the Brexit Party by just 683 votes.
Election experts from Democracy Volunteers said they'd seen multiple voters taking photos of their ballot papers at polling stations.
Director John Ault told the Mail on Sunday: "I have observed many elections across Europe and only once in Kazakhstan many years ago did I see what I saw happen three times in Peterborough.
"One can only speculate as to why some voters feel the need to do this, although this can, in some cases, point to a contract being fulfilled or an inducement having been given."
Kazakhstan is an effective dictatorship where elections are rigged to ensure the ruling party has no chance of defeat.
Mr Ault also witnessed frequent "family voting" where groups of voters cast their ballots at the same time.
Mr Farage raged: "We've seen so many cases now where again and again we find - particularly in the inner cities - postal voting is producing the wrong results.
"And I'm afraid Peterborough looks like another one of those rotten boroughs."
Separately it's emerged that election fraudster Tariq Mahmood, who was previously jailed for rigging democracy, was involved in the Labour campaign.
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He canvassed the constituency alongside Jeremy Corbyn and the successful candidate Lisa Forbes.
Labour said Mahmood was not a party member and had no formal role in the by-election campaign.
Police are investigating five claims of misconduct linked to the June 6 poll.
The Sun Says
ELEVEN years ago three men were jailed for rigging a council election in Peterborough for Labour by forging postal votes.
Later, in 2017 — despite the town voting heavily for Leave — Labour got a Corbynista Remainer elected by 607 votes.
When she was jailed for lying, the Brexit Party were hot favourites to win the by-election. But Labour, despite a Brexit policy in tatters and a candidate up to her neck in anti-Semitism allegations, somehow held on.
Of 33,998 ballots, 9,898 were postal votes, much higher than the UK average. And one of the key campaigners behind the win was Tariq Mahmood — yes, one of the jailed fraudsters of 2008.
An amazing coincidence, perhaps. But police had better probe it thoroughly. Because if that tight by-election was fixed, it must be rerun.
Whatever happens, it’s long past time to rethink postal votes. They are wide open to criminality and unworthy of our democracy.
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