ALLEGATIONS of forgery are contained in a file of complaints about allegedly forged proxy votes at May's district council elections in Pendle.

The file has been sent to the returning officer, council chief executive Stephen Barnes, by Liberal agent Tony Greaves, who first raised the issue during the election campaign.

The complaints relate to 13 applications for proxy votes of which the Liberals claim nine are serious cases of forgery.

They are also complaining of Labour party workers allegedly visiting an elector to try to persuade him to say he had signed a form someone else had forged.

Mr Greaves said: "I want to make it quite clear. We are not talking here about misunderstandings or marginal cases.

"We are talking about blatant examples of the forgery of signatures.'' The election result in Bradley Ward was not close enough to be affected by the cases raised so there was no question of court action to challenge the result.

Mr Greaves added: "This is simply a question of whether people have been breaking the law. I believe we have sent in more than enough evidence to justify a thorough investigation by the returning officer and the police.

"We have therefore made the complaint. It is now in their hands.''

The complaint has led to tit-for-tat allegations by Labour leader Coun Azhar Ali.

He said: "We have our own information on the proxy issue and have said we will take part in any inquiry.

"We have asked for all parties to sit down and work something out but the Lib-Dems have refused.''

Coun Ali said the proxy issue had been a problem in Pendle over the years and he had evidence of rigging by the "other side.''

He added: "This all gives democracy a bad name and we want it to be stopped.''

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