Midday Friday has come and gone, and we can now reveal that the man accused of electoral fraud in South Auckland is Daljit Singh. Name suppression was lifted at midday after Singh abandoned plans to appeal to the Court of Appeal after a failed bid in the High Court yesterday.
Daljit Singh is innocent until proven guilty; we cannot stress that strongly enough. But Daljit Singh is also a candidate in the Papatoetoe subdivision of the Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board of the Manukau Ward of the new Auckland Council; a bit of a mouthful, but in short, a candidate for public office at local body level. The voting public has a right to know his identity.
Daljit Singh sought office with the endorsement of the Labour Party. He has used Labour Party signage and print material. These relationships are fairly loose in the local body context, but it must be a cause of much angst to the Labour Party to have even a casual association with Daljit Singh.
We will be following the progress of Daljit Singh's case with much interest. We will also be interested to see whether there is any fallout in the wake of the election he contested, the result of which he is alleged to have tried to influence.
UPDATE: Thanks to a vigilant reader, here's the link to the High Court decision delivered yesterday by Justice Priestley in the matter of Singh versus the NZ Police - it's well worth taking a moment to read, especially the portion where Justice Priestley weighs the presumption of innocence against the public interest; paragraphs 34-37. He endorse Judge Heather Simpson's decision from Tuesday to refuse name suppression.
7 comments:
If found guilty he is dishonest and the Labour PArty will be well-off without him. Pretty straight-forward unless we begin to conjecture and speculate.
Quite so Anon. There is nothing to suggest that Singh's alleged wrongdoing was in any way supported by the Labour Party, and Andrew Little has quickly distanced the party from Singh. I'm sure that all the parties in the current Parliament would abhor the alleged offending.
oh the shock of this being someone from labour.
Like Field - I suspect they will back him to the end.
As shocking as anyone being from any party being dodgy. I think you'll find that dodginess doesn't discriminate as to political leanings. If you want a list just google it. *Sigh* Me, you're an advertisement for small-mindedness and lack of real-world comprehension who give us Nat supporters a bad name. If you're going to throw grenades, best you're not surrounded by chicken wire huh?
Are there any prominent Labour Party Officials as friends on his facebook page? Has he been photographed with any Mayoral candidates. How many voters are listed as resident at his dwelling.
@ Baxter; yes; he's friends with Phil Goff and Labour list MP Carol Beaumont. He also "likes" Annette King of Rongotai and the New Zealand Labour Party. As I said in my earlier post today, I doubt that the New Zealand Labour Party likes Daljit Singh!
and Andrew Little has quickly distanced the party from Singh.
Well, Bugger me! a Labour president taking the prudent course of action. They might resemble a credible alternative by next election if they're careful...
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