Saturday 11 March 2017

Why Deeplish? Odd Statistics & 'Electoral Fraud'!

Dear Brian,

May I ask why you and Northern Voices seem to automatically think the complaint regarding electoral fraud relates to either Milkstone and Deeplish ward or Central Rochdale ward?

Many thanks 

Councillor Neil Emmott

Dear Councillor Emmott,
Have you perused the figures for Milkstone & Deeplish ward for the local elections of 2015?  77.7% for the winning candidate?  Meanwhile, the other four candidates got just over 22%.  With the greatest respect, doesn't that seem like a strange result statistically to you?  One worthy of some examination?  Such results are more commonly achieved historically in one party states.

Your sincerely,
Brian Bamford:  (Joint-Editor of Northern Voices)

BELOW is the result of the Rochdale local election for 2015 in Central Rochdale ward refered to by Councillor Neil Emmott above.

Central Rochdale ward

Central Rochdale
PartyCandidateVotes%±
LabourAli Ahmed2,45557.9-21.6
IndependentFarooq Ahmed97222.9+22.9
UKIPAngela Gardner47311.1+11.1
ConservativeRoger Howarth1934.5-1.6
IndependentAndy Littlewood801.9-5.2
TUSCDavid Fenwick-Finn691.6+1.6
Majority1,48334.9-37.4
Turnout4,242
Labour gain from IndependentSwing

2 comments:

Cllr Neil Emmott said...

Hello Brian,

I have looked at the Milkstone and Deeplish result from 2015 and to be honest I don't agree with you. There are plenty of local wards up and down the UK which are so strong for one party that they frequently poll over three quarters of the total vote.

I would refer you to the work of Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, who are both professors of Politics at Plymouth University who have been compiling and analysing local election results for over 30 years. In their studies you will see that there are in fact wards in Britain where the winning party gets over 80 percent of the vote and in some cases over 90 percent.

Indeed, in our own borough I refer you to the result in West Middleton ward in 2012, where my comrade Lil Murphy was re-elected. She polled 82.2 percent of the vote in that election which is higher than the 77.7 percent in Milkstone and Deeplish just 3 short years later. Now I do know you were writing articles for Northern Voices back in 2012, so why did you not presume there was something wrong with that result?

In that same year my comrade Billy Sheerin won Castleton with 75.1 percent of the vote, may I ask why you didn't see fit to question that result?

In 2008, Councillor Ashley Dearnley held Wardle and West Littleborough for the Tories with 80.4 percent of the vote, yet you didn't cast aspersions on that result.

Indeed only last May in 2016 my comrade Liam O'Rourke won North Heywood with almost 72 percent of the votes cast, why do you not question that result?

So as you can see there are plenty of examples in this day and age of candidates polling well into the 70 and 80 percent zone, yet for some reason you choose to single out the good people of Milkstone and Deeplish ward. What is so different about Milkstone and Deeplish ward that for some reason you question the result there while you don't question the other examples I have provided you with?


Yours sincerely


Neil Emmott

bammy said...

Councillor Neil Emmott & his boss Richard Farnell, I think protests too much! All we know at present is that according to the ROCHDALE ONLINE that there has been a complaint to the police about the 2015 local elections in Rochdale. Anything else is pure speculation. Councillor Emmott puts up a stout defence for quoting academic sources, while his colleague Rochdale Council leader Farnell spits blood; describing NV as 'posionous'.