London: As Britain gears up for Thursday's local council elections, a new research reveals that the electoral system is plagued by fraud, including vote rigging , by communities with origin in the Indian sub-continent. In several constituencies, the Asian community comprises a substantial section of the votes.

But bulk voting by postal ballots according to village politics and the biraderi (brotherhood) system have caused much concern among election officials. The research carried out by Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust, reveals that there have been numerous convictions for electoral fraud since 2000,when postal votes first became freely available on demand.

These convictions had resulted from incidents of electoral malpractices in inner-city wards in places with large Asian concentrations such as Birmingham, Oldham, Blackburn, Burnley and Tower Hamlets in London. The convictions, the trust said, "emerged alongside anecdotal evidence of more widespread, and long-run, practises associated with Pakistani, Kashmiri and Bangladeshi traditions of biraderi (brotherhood) clans in influencing voting behaviour."

The research, published in a report titled Purity of Elections in the UK Causes for Concern , said: "It is evident that each of the principal political parties have at some stage sought to acquire a degree of political advantage in particular localities through the promise of a Muslim candidate claiming to be able to guarantee a minimum number of votes arising from their support with a wider clan." The document quotes Birmingham city councillor Salma Yaqoob, who has warned that Muslim women are in danger of being disenfranchised.

Source : PTI