'Bogus officials in bid to register illegal votes'

A council block at the centre of vote-rigging allegations in Bethnal Green and Bow has been identified by the Evening Standard.

Residents of Wheler House in Spitalfields claim they have been visited by bogus election officials attempting to register false names at their addresses.

Fozor Bibi said she had handed over election papers to men who called at her flat claiming to be election officials.

She later discovered four men she had never heard of had been registered to vote at her property.

She added: "They told me that they would post my forms for me so I handed them over."

Another resident, Tutu Miyah, said that two men came to his house, one Bengali man and one white man, who said they were "officials from the council".

The men asked him to sign a form and said they could register his family home for postal voting. He said: "I said no to these men because there were putting pressure on me and this did not seem right."

Labour's Oona King and Respect candidate George Galloway are competing for the seat. Mr Galloway has demanded an immediate investigation into the allegations.

He blamed the postal voting system saying it was "wide open to fraud".

Mr Galloway added: "Fraudsters are targeting elderly Bengali residents."