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Post a message CITY Labour leader Sir Albert Bore today called for a national rethink on postal voting after a candidate was found with a bag of completed ballot papers in a late-night police swoop. Sir Albert's said he would be telling Tony Blair: "It looks and it feels wrong. That is why the system needs to be looked at again." His call came after Aston Labour candidate Mohammed Kazi held a bizarre clandestine midnight meeting with party officials. Their cars pulled into a deserted cul-de-sac on a city industrial estate to "sort out" completed ballot papers. Police swooped on the meeting following a tip-off from rival Liberal Democrats who were watching. Coun Kazi, who said he feared the watching rivals would steal the ballots, was quizzed by detectives and later cleared of any illegal act. Sir Albert said: "As a candidate I am allowed to apply for postal voting on your behalf, collect the forms, have it delivered to my address, fill it in for you, put it together and deliver it to the elections office. "There is nothing illegal about it, but it looks and it feels wrong. That is why the system needs to be looked at again. It is very concerning the way the postal vote system is being used." This latest incident comes in an election campaign rife with allegations of fraud, dirty tricks, intimidation and smear tactics following a huge leap in the numbers of postal votes from about 25,000 last year to more than 70,000. Papers Last week the Evening Mail revealed how a city postman had been offered £500 cash for a sack full of postal ballots. Sir Albert said that candidates of all parties had been collecting ballot papers and hit out at what he described as dirty tricks from the Liberal Democrats rivals. The Labour Party is considering legal action against the Liberal Democrats who rushed out an election leaflet wrongly claiming Coun Kazi had been arrested. Liberal Democrat leader John Hemming confirmed that his party's supporters had been watching the Aston Labour Party offices and followed the cars to Birch Avenue before alerting police. He said: "The police have let the Labour Party off the hook. They are not serious about tackling election fraud." A police spokesman confirmed officers acted on a tip-off to descend on the meeting at 12.15am yesterday. "Officers made enquiries but the matter is no longer the subject of an investigation," he added. | 
