I set up this group during the European parliamentary election campaign. Since then, it seems that a massive degree of electoral fraud has taken place in the USA. Visit my group us-electoral-fraud for details, and to discuss if anything can be done about it.

The new political formation called "Respect - the Unity Coalition", which stood on an anti-war and vaguely socialist programme, had party election broadcasts on the 27th of May 2004.

However, the ballot papers arrived (in Manchester, Withington ward, and possibly many other areas of the North of England where all-postal voting was used) before that broadcast. Even more blatantly, the envelope said in bold capital letters that the recipient should return it immediately!

Respect was not the only defrauded party. In fact, the day after Respect's broadcast came the fascist British National Party's. I of course shed no tears for them and would ban anyone from this group who admits being a member or supporter of the BNP.

As it happens, the defrauding of Respect did not make any difference to whether anyone got elected, because their highest vote (by far) was in London (4.8% compared with 1.7% nationally) due to the high Asian population there.

Respect did not stand in Scotland, where the Scottish Socialist Party is established; that party got about 5.2% across Scotland, with traditional ballot boxes (and virtually zero media coverage).

A related issue is the unfair electoral system cooked up by the big parties. Why can’t we specify second (and third etc.) preferences, instead of voting Labour purely to keep out the Tories or the BNP. You can visit a forum for a fair form of PR by clicking here or visit the forum of the Campaign for Democracy in the UK.

And the USA and Britain claim they will bring democracy to Iraq!