First Muslim mayor to face fraud trial: Tower Hamlets borough boss accused of promising houses for votes Daily Mail

Lutfur Rahman

  Lutfur Rahman allegedly used illegal tactics to win May mayoral election

  Islamic voters were 'told they should be good Muslims and support him'

  Supporters accused of branding his main rival racist and anti-Islamic

  Four voters have submitted damaging dossier of evidence to High Court

Britain’s first elected Muslim mayor is to face trial over claims he committed widespread voting fraud.

Lutfur Rahman, 48, is accused of using illegal tactics to win the mayoral election in Tower Hamlets, East London, in May.

People were allegedly promised council houses if they backed him and Islamic voters were told they should be ‘good Muslims’ and support him.

His supporters are accused of doctoring ballot papers, manipulating postal voting and sabotaging the chances of his main rival, Labour candidate John Briggs, by branding him racist and anti-Islamic.

Four voters have submitted a damaging dossier of evidence to the High Court in an attempt to overturn Mr Rahman’s election victory.

Yesterday Mr Justice Supperstone and Mr Justice Spence granted them the right to have their allegations heard at a full trial, which is expected to be heard in Tower Hamlets later this year.

Mr Rahman was a member of the Tower Hamlets Labour Party and was its candidate to be the first directly elected mayor of the borough in 2010.

But he was expelled from the Labour party after allegations surfaced about his close links with an Islamic extremist group called the Islamic Forum of Europe.

Mr Rahman then won the 2010 mayoral contest as an independent candidate.

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Homes for votes deal in council election fix': Petition claims polling for mayor in London's Tower Hamlets was fraudulent

'Homes for votes deal in council election fix': Petition claims polling for mayor in London's Tower Hamlets was fraudulent. Daily Mail

Mayor Lutfur Rahman

  Islamic voters allegedly told to be 'good Muslims' by electing Lutfur Rahman

  His supporters handed out lollipops to the children of voters, it is claimed

  Mr Rahman, serving a second term as borough mayor, won by 3,000 votes

Voters were promised council houses if they re-elected their mayor, a court heard yesterday.

Islamic sections of the electorate were told they should be ‘good Muslims’ by voting for Mayor Lutfur Rahman, it was said.

In a further bid to win votes, supporters of Mr Rahman allegedly handed out lollipops to the children of voters in Tower Hamlets, East London.

A petition brought before the High Court claims the re-election of the mayor in May was fraudulent ‘in a variety of forms’.

It alleges that council officers were bullied into ‘securing a certain number of votes’ and were threatened with the sack if they refused.

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