The polls are open in Tower Hamlets and I’ll leave this thread open to you for your descriptions. Include details such as voter and police turnouts, which way you think it’s going (particularly in Weavers) voter intimidation, complaints about possible wrongdoing, comedy moments, whether Abjol MIah is wearing a Respect rosette, and of course sightings of the not-so-lesser spotted Lutfurmobile…
Trial by Jeory 
It seems that every polling station in Tower Hamlets is to have two police officers keeping order. Allowing for shifts that is every copper in the division. Who do we blame for the crime wave if the local villains work it out?
Azizur Khan is the dark horse in this race. The liberals have run a clean campaign, but all parties should seriously consider grouping together to complain about respect and the mayor’s conduct. They have misled the public about which party abjol is for.
If the Lib Dems were serious they wouldn’t have stood a candidate but would have told their supporters to vote Labour instead. Vanity politics.
5 or 6 people voting ahead of me at Professional Development Centre, English St. @ 8:30 but police officers must have been busy elsewhere.
Similar story for me at the Tredegar Community Centre in Bow East: no police and far higher turnout than for the Lutfur mayoral election.
Malmesbury Road Primary School (Bow West) all quiet. A few people rocking up to vote (the lunchtime rush??) No police. Incidentally I’m rather impressed with the new entrance and extension to the school.
Actually, one question. When I rolled up and they were explaining the ballot papers to me I was told that I was not allowed to vote for the same Mayoral candidate twice. (This advice appears to be echoed on the TH Council website http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/news__events/news/april/have_your_say.aspx)
That confused me and did affect the way I voted. I’ve been hunting around on the internet because I thought that you were allowed to vote for one person twice but the second vote just wouldn’t count. And that is what the London Elects website says: “If a voter casts both choices for
the same candidate, the second choice does not count as an extra vote for that candidate, and will not be counted”.
Does anybody know which is correct? I’m fed up with the stupid multiple ways of voting that we use – if I can’t understand the rules then what hope do many others have. Is TH giving the wrong information to its electorate?
eastenders… I think you’ve just answered your own question. If you vote for the same candidate twice then the second preference is invalid and will not be counted. I’m sure that’s what the officers were trying to tell you at the station. When they said “you’re not allowed” they didn’t mean that you will be taken out and executed if you do, they meant that if you want both your first and second preference to be counted then you have to make sure that they’re not for the same candidate. That’s all – there’s no contradiction here.
I have just returned from the polling station at Christchurch Primary School on Brick Lane and can report THE SEALS ON THE BALLOT BOXES WERE UNSIGNED. I raised this with the returning officer – Mohammed Ali – saying “are the seals meant to be signed” to which he replied “yes” and then I said “so why are they not signed?” He then became very defensive, even aggressive and eventually signed the seal on one box. He said election observers had been around but clearly they like him are either incompetent or worse.
I tried to take a photograph but was prevented from doing so.
There were no police present.
I have reported this to Tower Hamlets and have been told the Returning Officer (the CEO) had been around to check on the polling stations. I do not know if he has been to this polling station but if he has (before the time I was there at 16:30) then he should hold himself personally responsible for his derilction of duty in a) checking the ballot boxes himself, and b) failure to train the presiding officers and tender his resignation forthwith.
This is a bloody outrage and I do not have any confidence in the security of the vote.
Is this a police matter?
James
I reported the same breach of security at Marner School, Bromley-by-Bow. 3 security seals had been applied and none signed. The Presiding Officer admitted (1) she had not been instructed to sign the seals and (2) the Returning Officer had visited the Polling Station earlier and had not mentioned/noticed the security breach.
p.s. Surprisingly the UK Electoral Commission Handbook for Polling Station Staff http://bit.ly/JhgTMB does not mention the requirement for a Presiding Officer (PO) to sign the paper seals. This would seem to be a serious weakness, as the seals can be broken and new ones applied without the knowledge of the PO..
I said “returning officer” in para.1 – I meant to say “Presiding Officer”
East London Advertiser reporting an early morning bust-up outside St Matthias Primary polling station (off Brick Lane) where police called. 20 “activists” handing out leaflets outside were allegedly challenged by the Green candidate, Chris Smith, as only one activist allowed outside per party:
http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/crime/police_called_to_polling_station_fracas_at_tower_hamlets_polling_station_off_brick_lane_1_1367603
ELA did not say which party the 20 activists came from but the Evening Standard are – apparently both Labour and Respect:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/mayor/police-call-for-reinforcements-at-tower-hamlets-polling-station-fracas-7711502.html
Doncaster is voting today on whether to abolish their Executive Mayor
http://www.itnsource.com/en/shotlist/ITN/2012/04/18/T18041246/
Again – WHY aren’t we allowed a vote on getting rid of ours???
We are allowed one. It’s the same procedure to trigger a referendum to change the executive back to the old model. I think the procedure is still as under the Local Government Act 2000 (as amended) -http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/22/part/II/crossheading/referendums.
Basically, if you can get 5% of the people on the TH electoral register to sign a petition, that will trigger a referendum. I think that enough time has passed since the last one that that can be done now.
Over to you if you want to…!
… Doncaster has had a mayor since 2001 so they are able now to vote on a reversion. We won’t get the chance for ten long years…. By which time most of us will probably have emigrated …
Just voted in Cephas Street and very quiet. In the sense that there was a queue of two, but no-one from the parties outside. Makes a change from the usual scrum!
Cllr Oli Rahman has just sent these two tweets:
Deepthroat says Abjol has won…
…Deepthroat may (hopefully) have been wrong
…ok he was wrong.