24 April (Part 1) - The man who does Bexley council’s dirty business
Nicholas Dowling,
Independent candidate for Blackfen and Lamorbey is becoming a bit of an
expert on electoral law and has caught Bexley council failing to observe it
absolutely once or twice already this month. He read
yesterday’s blog about Bexley council gagging Chris Attard,
UKIP candidate for Lesnes, and suggested I
read the ‘Code of Recommended Practice’ covering electoral purdah.
I was a little surprised that Nicholas should be interested in a Code as he of all people should know that
Bexley council takes absolutely no notice of
Guidance Notes - but maybe they do when they believe one might be perverted
into an excuse to exercise illegal control over residents.
So I read up on Electoral Law and the so called purdah period and found it is
not supported in law at all, it’s just a tradition.
The current guidance note was issued by The Department for Communities and Local Government in March 2011 and gets nowhere
near suggesting that Akin Alabi, Bexley’s Head of Legal Services, can gag a member of the public because their
question to council might be “unfair on the current administration”.
This (click or scroll) is what the Guidance Note has to say…
So once again solicitor Akin Alabi is prepared to exceed his authority to please his paymasters. Is that corruption?