"THIS MUST NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN" SLAMS LEECH

4.51.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 11th May 2010

John Leech, Manchester Withington's newly re-elected MP, has slammed the inadequacy of the Manchester city council for the polling day fiasco that took place on May 6th across the constituency.

There were problems at three polling stations in Manchester Withington constituency that resulted in voters being turned away and denied the right to vote.

The three polling stations in question which have been reported to Manchester city council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein and the electoral commission were Didsbury United Reform Church, Fallowfield Bowling & Lawn Tennis Club, and Ladybarn Community Centre.

All three of the above polling stations had real problems on polling day which resulted in voters being turned away unable to vote at 10pm it is estimated just over 200 people missed out on the opportunity to vote in Manchester Withington constituency.

There were angry scenes at Ladybarn Community Centre which resulted in the police being called to deal with the situation.

This polling station, covering two polling districts in Withington ward part of the Manchester Withington constituency was responsible for 6,655 parliamentary electors in Manchester Withington.

John Leech MP has spoken out to air his disappointment in the fiasco "I have reported this to both the Chief Executive of Manchester City Council and the electoral commission. I'm certainly going to be pushing the government for a change in the law to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to vote if they've made the effort to go to the polls before 10 o'clock"

In a statement, Manchester City Council said: "We understand that people were frustrated that they didn't get to vote.

"We had extra members of staff that we sent to areas where there had been queues throughout the evening.

"We don't believe we could have done anything differently for the people who unfortunately didn't allow themselves enough time to vote."

When asked about the comments from the Manchester City Council John Leech said,

"I don't think they did enough at Ladybarn community centre, they had two very large polling districts to cope with totalling in over 6,000 potential voters, to have one table registering voters and only four voting booths is disgraceful.

The cost cutting nature of this Labour-run Manchester City Council has cost democracy here in Manchester Withington and this must never happen again".

<ENDS>

Notes to Editors

Contact James Hennigan on 078 11 09 6717 / 0161 434 3334 for more information.

The three problem stations in Manchester Withington were:

DWA Didsbury United Reform Church (3,255 parliamentary electors)

OMC/OME Fallowfield Bowling & Lawn Tennis Club (3,122 parliamentary electors)

WTA/WTB Ladybarn Communuity Centre (6,655 parliamentary electors)

Contact details of voters at DWA and WTA/WTB who were turned away are available.

John Leech MP has reported this to Sir Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive, Manchester City Council and the Electoral Commission.

He also intends to raise the issue in parliament and lobby the government to review the system of voting.