The east London borough of Tower Hamlets has a new Labour mayor just weeks after Britain’s first directly elected Muslim mayor, Lutfur Rahman, was ejected from office by an election court judge.
John Biggs beat the Rahman-backed candidate, Rabina Khan, into a close
second place in a campaign conducted amid intense police and media
scrutiny.
It followed an investigation after which Rahman was found guilty of systematic and widespread electoral fraud and banned from office.
Biggs, the Labour candidate, received 27,255 votes in the first round compared
with Khan’s 25,763, winning 39% of the vote compared with 37%.
Because no candidate achieved 50%, votes from the other eight candidates were redistributed. Biggs won with 32,754 while Khan had 26,384, giving Labour a majority of 6,370.
Rahman was found by an election court ruling in April to have committed corrupt and illegal practices during last year’s election.
He used vote-rigging, religious bullying of Muslim voters through imams, and false allegations of racism against Biggs to return to office in 2014, Richard Mawrey QC ruled.
While Khan was not implicated in any claims of electoral fraud, she was one of 18 councillors in Rahman’s Tower Hamlets First party. Mawrey concluded that their election victories had also “been achieved with the benefit of the corrupt and illegal practices”.
Biggs, a former City analyst and London Assembly member, praised Khan’s campaign in his victory speech, and said it was time for the local population to “move forward”.
The count was conducted at the ExCel Centre, a venue chosen because it is outside the borough. Candidates and critics of Rahman claimed that last year’s count conducted inside the borough was open to fraud and intimidation by hundreds of Rahman’s supporters.
Voters on Thursday were greeted at polling booths by police officers, printed signs warning against fraud, and cordoned-off areas as authorities tried to stop the bullying and ballot paper tampering that marred last year’s election.
Labour MPs including leadership favourite Andy Burnham visited the borough en masse as the party sought to ensure that Biggs made it into office.
Detectives are examining 16 allegations of electoral malpractice, including the use of “ghost” voters and improper distribution of election literature, the Guardian disclosed on Sunday. Khan has reported Labour supporters for “treating” – offering gifts in exchange for votes – and alleged postal vote fraud.
Rahman’s supporters have said he plans to launch a judicial review to challenge Mawrey’s judgment.
