By Brendan Carlin and Ross Slater For The Mail On Sunday
Published: 23:03 BST, 15 June 2019 | Updated: 08:55 BST, 16 June 2019
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Voting practices in the Peterborough by-election won by Labour were worthy of corrupt ex-Soviet state Kazakhstan, independent observers warned last night.
They said the sight of people photographing their completed ballot papers was something they had only ever seen in Kazakhstan ‘many years ago’.
The oil-rich state has until recently had only one president since it broke with the Soviet Union in 1991, with claims that even last Sunday’s election was rigged.
Labour’s victory by just 683 votes over the Brexit Party in Peterborough was mired in controversy last week after The Mail on Sunday revealed claims that a convicted vote rigger was at the centre of the party’s campaign. Cambridgeshire Police have since revealed they are investigating five complaints of electoral malpractice, including bribery. Now election experts Democracy Volunteers have raised fresh concerns over the by-election.
Labour Party candidate Lisa Forbes reacts after winning the Peterborough by-election at the KingsGate Centre in Peterborough
John Ault, director of the organisation, said he had seen people photographing their completed ballot papers in what he suggested could show they were fulfilling a ‘contract’ to prove how they had voted.
He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I have observed many elections across Europe and only once in Kazakhstan many years ago did I see what I saw happen three times in Peterborough.
‘There are signs up warning you not to take photographs and these were not selfies
