Tower Hamlets: Lutfur Rahman removed as Labour mayoral candidate
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Here's the statement from the London Labour Party:
Having received a number of serious allegations concerning both the eligibility of participating voters and the conduct of Lutfur Rahman, the NEC has decided to investigate the allegations made. As a result, administrative action has been taken to remove Lutfur Rahman as a candidate pending the investigation. Nominations for Tower Hamlets mayor close this week and in the circumstances the NEC had no option but to impose another candidate. The NEC has voted to select Helal Abbas Uddin as Labour's candidate.
This decision has just been taken. It is the latest dramatic twist in a saga which, as the East London Advertiser reports, had already had a littler one earlier today when Peter Golds, the leader of the Conservative opposition on the Council, asked the police to investigate alleged breaches by Rahman of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (not that requests of this general nature have been scarce in recent Tower Hamlets history).
It is the latest setback for Rahman who was twice omitted from shortlists for the selection only to finally be included following legal action on his part - and that's the very, very condensed version. I'm particularly interested by the NEC statement's reference to "the eligibility of participating voters" in view of the accounts I was given of the measures taken to ensure that the vote was conducted according to the rules.
Helal Abbas Uddin is the current leader of the Council under the leader-and-cabinet system due to be replaced by the executive mayor arrangement at the election next month. He was chosen by Labour councillors to replace Rahman following the borough elections in May amid concerns about the views and affiliations of some of the latter's supporters and the style of his leadership.
There is a view in local Labour circles, one shared even by some strong opponents of Rahman, that had everyone seeking the nomination been allowed to enter the contest from the start - which is what eventually occurred - the quality of debate would have been both higher and more honest and the battle less divisive. More than one unsuccessful candidate takes the view that the publicity generated around Rahman helped him win by persuading some party members to rally round a man they considered to be a victim of smear campaigns and dsicrimination.
Will this latest initiative from the top end of the party make matters better or, in the end, even worse from its point of view? On past evidence m'learned friends will not be going short of work.
Update, 16:53 I was told the other day that Helal Abbas Uddin had made a legal objection the selection process on grounds that sound very similar to those today's NEC statement says informing its decision. I now understand that this objection and the evidence supporting it are indeed the reason - the only one - for the decision. And, yes indeed, the East London Advertiser is reporting:
Insiders in the Lutfur camp are that he is planning to return to the High Court to try and get this latest setback overturned and is in talks with his lawyers this-afternoon.
He'll have to move fast if he wants to lawyer his way back into being the Labour candidate. Persons seeking election as Tower Hamlets mayor have only until the end of the week to get their names down - a fact that seems unlikely to have been lost on the Labour hierarchy. Not surprisingly, the party fully expects the whole matter to be heading swiftly back towards the courts. Will it be accused of being complicit with Uddin in an eleventh hour "stop Lutfur" stitch-up? Is grass green?
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
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