ENGLISH should be the only language allowed to be used by officials at Derby polling stations, a senior councillor has demanded.
Tory opposition leader Philip Hickson said other languages should be outlawed in a bid to prevent electoral fraud.
But the city council says the Electoral Commission believes that having staff who can translate enquiries is “beneficial”.
His call comes after the commission said Derby was among 16 authorities where there was a “higher risk” of fraud.
This follows the conviction of five people over fraud at an Arboretum polling station in 2012.
The council, police and commission are now working together to cut the risk of this happening again.
Mr Hickson says one way of doing this would be to prevent officials at polling stations from speaking any language other than English. He said: “I’ve heard in polling stations, in the past, officials speaking to voters in a language other than English and I think that’s inappropriate.”
Mr Hickson called for a “level playing field” where any moderators, agents and candidates are able to understand what officials say.
He said: “You could then hear what is being said and know that the message being given is the correct one.”
There are officially more than 70 languages spoken in Derby and Mr Hickson said it was not appropriate that some non-English speakers received a language service and not others.
He said that one way people without fluent English could get the information they needed would be by being given official information written in their own language.
Mr Hickson added: “I can’t think of any reason this rule couldn’t be brought in.”
The Tory leader, a former chairman of the now-defunct Derbyshire Police Authority, added that the amount of policing at polling stations had dwindled.
He said: “They’ve progressively withdrawn their presence from polling stations. When I began as a councillor in 1987, there was a police officer at the polling stations most of the time.
“I think they accept that and they’ve said they want to be more closely involved this year.”
Labour council leader Paul Bayliss said that returning officer Janie Berry CRRCT had “sufficient freedom in law to do what she felt appropriate”.
He said of the controls that would be in place for the May elections: “We need to see what the Electoral Commission recommends.
“There has also been a suggestion made that people should have identification to vote.
“We need to come to a conclusion about what we are going to do and that will be for the returning officer to decide.”
The electoral fraud case in Arboretum involved polling station clerk Nasreen Akhtar helping her nieces, Tameena Ali and Samra Ali, to cast fraudulent votes by pretending to be someone else.
Akhtar, 47, was jailed for 14 months in July. Tameena and Samra got eight-month prison sentences, suspended for 18 months.
Tameena cast her vote for Labour candidate Gulfraz Nawaz in the name of Noshiela Maqsood, who is no relation.
Samra left before marking the ballot paper.
Maqsood, 24, who lied to police saying she had personally voted, was also given an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for 18 months.
Judge John Wait said it was apparent “that not one of you in the dock was the initiator in this electoral fraud”.
The ward was won by Labour, with the Liberal Democrats in second place.
In a November letter from the Electoral Commission, Derby politicians and officers were told that the body would be “reviewing the plans from those who are responsible for maintaining the integrity of elections in Derby in advance of May’s elections”.
Mrs Berry previously said she respected the decision of the commission. She said: “There is always a risk of fraud and the council must ensure that plans are sufficiently robust to ensure that such a risk remains extremely low. I do not believe the risk to be any lower or greater in Derby.
Asked if the council thought Mr Hickson’s languages idea would be beneficial, a spokeswoman said: “Probably not – Electoral Commission guidance is very elector-focused and they see having staff who can
translate enquiries as beneficial.”
She said it would be highly likely that the authority, if it were to provide written answers, would “inadvertently omit either a question of language from the summary”.
Of Mr Hickson’s comment about the police, Assistant Chief Constable Gary Knighton said: “We will continue to support the returning officer to ensure that elections are conducted in a fair and lawful manner.
“Officers are resourced to incidents on the level of their priority. Should an incident occur at a polling station and police are required, then officers will attend.”
At the May 22 elections, there are likely to be 86 polling stations and 256 officials.
Read more: http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Speak-English-Derby-polling-stations-says-Tory/story-20433157-detail/story.html#ixzz2qHUBPXPV