http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=17051715&method=full&siteid=50002&headline=bnp-asks-police-to-investigate--secret--recount-name_page.html

Police have been asked to investigate a "secret" election recount in
Birmingham which resulted in the British National Party being told that
its candidate had not topped the poll after all.

BNP leaders yesterday lodged a formal complaint following events in
King-standing at the city council elections when, after three counts,
their candidate Sharon Ebanks was told her votes had been cut from
2,310 to 1,329 - which meant that Labour's Cath Grundy was the winner.

Birmingham City Council blamed the mix-up on a mistake in the counting
process, which saw more than 2,000 votes counted twice.

However, the discovery was too late to prevent Ms Ebanks being declared
one of two councillors elected in King-standing. She was sworn in as a
city councillor yesterday.

Under UK election law a result is legally binding once announced by a
returning officer and can only be over-turned through an election
petition to the High Court, which Labour is now doing.

BNP regional organiser Simon Darby said it was inconceivable that 981
votes for Ms Ebanks could have been double counted, while only 194
votes for the Labour candidates were double-counted.

Mr Darby also questioned the validity of a fourth and final count of
the Kingstanding votes, after the result had been declared and
representatives from political parties had left the building.

Mr Darby said: "It would appear that rather than the BNP votes being
counted twice, as claimed by the Birmingham elections department, a
much easier explanation was that some of the BNP votes have gone
missing.

"The question has to be asked who gave the authority to count the votes
again, once the official result had been declared, in secret and in the
absence of candidates and agents from all parties."

Mr Darby said the discrepancies between the two declared results were
beyond belief, especially as the original result was only declared
after two recounts. "You don't make that kind of schoolboy error three
times," he said.

Stephen Hughes, the returning officer for Birmingham and council chief
executive, rejected Mr Darby's allegations of a secret recount.

"What happened was that once everyone left, someone looked at the
figures and they realised a wrong result had been declared. The ballots
were not recounted but we have worked out what the right result should
be."