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Saghir is charged with five offences
A FORMER Calderdale Conservative councillor has gone on trial accused of election fraud.
Mohammed Saghir, 63, of Gibbet Street, Halifax, is charged with five offences of applying for a proxy vote as some other person.
Saghir, who is being tried in his absence, allegedly applied for the votes for Park ward for the local election of May 2008 when his son, Shakar, stood as an Independent candidate.
Bradford Crown Court heard that people may apply for a proxy vote if they are on the electoral roll but are unable to attend the polling station themselves.
Instead, a named person can act as a proxy, attend on their behalf and cast their desired vote.
But Nicholas Barker, prosecuting, said evidence from a handwriting expert suggests that Saghir filled out five applications for proxy votes that the registerd voters, all of whom had moved out of Park Ward, were unaware of and had not consented to.
He said: "This came to light because Linda Clarkson, the principal electoral officer for Calderdale Council, became suspicious of five electoral applications – the signatures on those were very similar."
Two of the voters, Abdul Qureshi and his wife, who moved from Thrum Hall Drive, Halifax, in November 2005, claim that they did not complete the forms, their dates of birth are incorrect and they did not know the people named as proxy – Saghir and his wife.
Mr Barker said the other voters were also spoken to and confirmed they had not filled in the forms or knew those named as proxy voters.
Saghir, who represented the former St John's ward on Calderdale Council from 2000 to 2004, was arrested and told officers that he was the campaign manager for his son.
He said it was normal for him and his family to act as proxy for other people but claimed he had not signed the forms.
However, Mr Barker said in his defence case statement, Saghir claims that the forms were filled in by his political opponents in a bid to discredit him and his son and to stop them campaigning.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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