HONEST, IT'S IN THE POST!

Whilst the dust has virtually settled on the local election front, South Tyneside seems unwilling to let matters rest. The Shields Gazette has a front page story about Ahmed Khan, the Independent candidate who lost out in the Beacon and Bents ward by a meagre 33 votes. However, with 90 postal returns deemed “unverified”, Mr Khan intends to seek a High Court appeal to have the votes either re examined or the election restaged. With corresponding signatures and dates of birth being essential to postal return verification, the actual voting paper remains sealed until the process is satisfactorily completed. Is this then a case of sour grapes or the application of an important democratic principal? Khan has always conducted himself well in his involvement in Borough politics and he ran an honest and sincere campaign in the ward this time round. I personally favour the latter view and see him as a man of principal. What then are his chances of success? To be honest, none. Whilst all the spoilt votes may have been in his favour, if they didn’t pass the verification process then their invalid, end of story. Adversely, they could all be weighted in favour of the ward’s Labour victor, Audrey McMillan. A split or 34+ number in Ahmed’s favour however, would be very interesting; whilst the moral victory would be his, history and precedent indicate there is unlikely to be any return to the hustings until next years official run off. Regardless of the outcome it shows that whilst on paper the postal vote is a good option for encouraging a better turn out, it still has many flaws which require fine tuning.