I’ve generally made it a rule never to get involved in, or pass much comment on, local body politics as I’ve learned the hard way that it is usually a dismal affair but someone engaging in systematic electoral fraud is a new low.
The signs are that a Labour candidate could be involved and if this is the case then the party will come down on them hard.
I’d imagine the maximum available penalty would banning them from Labour party membership for life – a penalty which, one would hope, would pale in comparison to that the court will mete out (and one that I would imagine many of the commenters here would consider a badge of honour).
I don’t know how it works nowadays but the selection of labour candidates for local body elections used to be done by a subcommittee of the LEC and, unless there was some special reason for getting involved, the party HQ had nothing to do with the process.
I suspect it is still done like this but that’s not going to stop the usual suspects trying to attach this scandal to the Labour party as a whole and, to be fair, they’ve been given a grand opportunity to do so.
Regardless of whether a Labour candidate is involved or not, I’d imagine the two things we’ll see come from this are a tightening up of the voting process and more due diligence done on anybody that is chosen to stand under the Labour brand.
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