Inept or Illegal? Shameful Delays in By-election Ballots.

Readers who vote using postal ballots will have received their ballots and some of you will have filled these in and sent back your ballots for the Mayor of London; for the GLA member; and for the Referendum. All sorted.

But if you are fortunate enough to live in East Ham’s Central ward, you will have the chance to vote in the by-election for a councillor to replace Julianne Marriot. Former Cllr Marriot left the council after she got a real job and the place has been vacant for almost 10 months. 

Unfortunately, if you are one of those who uses a postal vote in East Ham Central, you have probably not received your ballot paper for the byelection.

We are told that the ballot papers are going to be sent out on Saturday 1st May, for an election that will be held on Thursday 6th May.

Let us suppose that the letters all go by first class and suffer no delays whatsoever, so they all arrive in the first post on the first working day after posting.

They won’t arrive on Sunday, because it is not a working day. They won’t arrive on Monday, because it is a bank holiday. The earliest possible arrival date is Tuesday 4th May, to complete, return and allow for the Post Office to deliver. Let’s hope that everyone in East Ham Central opens official correspondence as soon as it arrives.

GLA and Referendum ballots had roughly three weeks in which to be turned around. By-election voters will have 24 hours.

As yet we do not know the reason for the astounding delay, it suggests incompetence of a world class standard or cynicism of North Korean proportions. We suspect that it is the former.

So, we have to ask. Does this effectively disenfranchise postal voters in East Ham Central? Is it legal? Should the by-election be re-run?

It might suit the Mayor’s candidate if it is re-run because we hear that things have not been going smoothly for the Labour Party this time around.

Let us hope that our elected councillors can get an answer from the Mayor. 

This is a major embarrassment to the council and heads should roll. Let’s see if they do or whether more incompetence is brushed under the carpet.