The recount of thousands of votes by a High Court in Britain that were cast for Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman in May's election has uncovered 'significant irregularities', that may be sufficient to over turn the result, a UK daily has reported.
The official scrutiny in strict secrecy before a judge last week was a part of the legal challenge to the election results, which was alleged to be rigged.
This is the latest and potentially most serious blow to Mr Rahman, many of whose functions were last week taken over by government commissioners, after an official report found he had presided over serious abuses of public money and property.
The Telegraph reported that Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, described Tower Hamlets as a “rotten borough” infected by a “culture of cronyism”, and said Mr Rahman was like a “medieval monarch” who had “misused” his “unchecked” personal power to favour ethnic and political allies.
However Mr Rahman's supporters have criticised this an 'Islamophobic witch hunt' and have claimed that “there is no basis for this in fact. It comes from rumours from right wing commentators.”
