CMS

Cameron McKenna has been fighting the side of the Returning Officer in the saga of alleged postal voting fraud in Birmingham.

Litigation assistant Joanne Marshall was instructed on behalf of the Birmingham Returning Officer in the inquiry into two local elections in Birmingham.

At the beginning of April, commissioner Richard Mawrey QC handed down his judgment, which found that the election of six Labour councillors in two Birmingham wards had been made void through “corrupt and illegal” practices by the candidates. However, Mawrey dismissed allegations that the Returning Officer’s conduct in the election was flawed.

One of the candidates, Muhammed Afzal, appealed against Mawrey’s decision and the case was heard in the Court of Appeal last week, prior to the general election. Camerons acted as an interested party in the Court of Appeal.

Marshall said: “It’s important because it’s served to bring the issue of postal voting very much into the public domain.”

The Court of Appeal has not given an indication of when its decision will be made, but there is the possibility that candidates standing in last Thursday’s (5 May) general election may be able to use this case to challenge their opponents’ elections.

Marshall instructed 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square junior Philip Coppel. Afzal was represented by Birmingham firm McGrath & Co’s name partner Graham McGrath and 6 King’s Bench Walk barrister Rambert de Mello.