The Hendon Labour Party

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Press Release
Date: 10^th June 2010

Immediate release

ELECTION ADMINISTRATION FAILURE IN HENDON

The Labour Party has now produced a detailed memorandum setting out the failings in the conduct of the General Election in Hendon (memorandum attached).

Andrew Dismore, the Labour candidate at the Election, commented:

"We have now received almost two hundred complaints about the way the election was conducted.

The complaints concerning the conduct of the election on polling day are almost exclusively about polling stations in traditional Labour areas. We have received no complaints about poor electoral administration in Conservative areas. There can be little doubt that many people were unable to vote because of the long queues of up to two hours. Many voters were also turned away at 10pm, across the constituency.

The problems did not end there, though. Dozens of voters also did not receive their postal votes in time or at all. Voters were given inadequate or wrong advice.

Polling staff even discouraged voters from exercising their right to vote, by drawing attention to the delays caused by the queues.

It is quite clear that woefully inadequate resources were provided for the election, and there was a complete lack of flexibility in polling stations.

Others who were legitimately on the electoral register were also denied their right to vote.

Given the scale of the problem and the small margin of the majority, there can be little doubt that the outcome of the election was affected by its conduct.

Whilst we received very strong legal advice that there were very good grounds for an election petition to challenge the outcome, unfortunately the costs of doing so are astronomical, and it was not possible to raise the enormous funds necessary to pursue such a case through the High Court.

It is wrong that so many people could be deprived of their right to vote and the outcome of an election put into question, yet there be no affordable or simple way of having the outcome reviewed by, for example, the Electoral Commission."