Elections: Every parish result invalid

THE row over alleged irregularities on election day at Warrington rumbles on – with a claim that the result of every parish council election in the borough may be invalid.
An independent candidate who stood in three separate elections – a borough council seat at Orford and parish council seats at Stockton Heath and Appleton – says there were fundamental errors at the count at Woolston Leisure Centre.
Michael Foxall, who was defeated in all three seats, has reported the alleged irregularities to the Electoral Commission and paid £1,500 of his own money to take the issue to the Royal Courts of Justice.
He says if his allegations are proved correct, the result of every parish election in Warrington could be invalid.
Mr Foxall attended a meeting of Appleton Parish Council to outline his concerns.
He said there had been fundamental errors at the count which were in breach of Electoral Commission regulations.
Candidates were not informed of the results before they were declared, which meant they had no opportunity to ask for a recount.
At Stockton Heath this resulted in a candidate losing out by three votes but not being able to ask for a recount.
Mr Foxall said he had watched the Appleton count taking place. The piles of votes made it quite clear that three Liberal Democrat candidates had been elected but there was a question about who came fourth.
His own pile of votes appeared to be larger than that of another candidate.
But the voting papers were then moved to another table where they could not be viewed and when the result was declared it did not reflect the piles of votes he had seen.
The Electoral Commission had confirmed that the voting papers should not have been moved to a position where they could not be viewed by the candidates.
Mr Foxall said: “There was either a cock-up or deliberate fraud. Either someone didn’t add up the votes properly or someone deliberately muddied the water.
“It was either incompetence or fraud – and I hope it was incompetence.
“I worked for the borough council for 30 years and was involved in 15 elections but I have never seen such a badly organised count.”
Mr Foxall, who had made similar allegations at Stockton Heath Parish Council the previous week, said he felt it was only right to inform the councils of the actions he had taken.
If his claims turned out to be correct – and he believed they were – every parish election would be invalid and every decision taken by parish councils since the election would also be invalid.