AN elections officer for Burnley Council told a court how she thought a councillor at the centre of an alleged election fraud was "joking" when he told her the number of proxy votes he expected to receive.

Daneshouse with Stoneyholme Liberal Democrat councillors Mozaquir Ali, 44, of Brougham Street, Burnley, and Manzur Hussain, 58, of Milner Street, Burnley, deny conspiracy to defraud a returning officer in local government elections for Burnley Borough Council in 2004.

The jury at Preston Crown Court had previously heard that out of the 195 proxy votes submitted from the Daneshouse and Stoneyholme ward, 167 were for Coun Ali.

Elections officer for the council, Alison Morville, yesterday told the court: "I didn't expect many to vote by proxy. He (Ali) said that he expected 100 to 200, or thereabouts.

"I thought he was joking. I said to him are you joking?' He just laughed."

The court heard how Mrs Morville had "become concerned" when all the proxy votes had been received and that she contacted the police when she suspected something was wrong with the proxy votes.

She added that 154 questionnaires had been sent out with the proxy voting forms, but approximately 30 had been returned to the council.

Proxy voting was available for people who could not participate in the all-postal election for reasons, according to Mrs Morville, such as "holidays, work commitments, incapacity, or students".

She said that her major concern surrounded many of the proxy votes received from white voters in the ward.

"It was more the white people that caused my concern. People in the same house had put that they were going on holiday on different days and then coming back on different days," she added.

The jury was told how when the police took a selection of the 167 proxy forms, all the forms they took away were from white voters in the ward.

(Proceeding)