Trust Party claims mistake could cost votes

Trust Party candidate Stuart Wheeler claims the mistake was down to Rother District Council (RDC) and could cost him votes in next week's local election.

Rother argues it merely provided an up-to-date electoral register as requested by the party.

But The Trust Party is claiming it was given an out of date register, which had details of the old Bexhill and Battle seat before boundary changes were made to take in part of Wealden and Hastings.

The result was Stuart Wheeler's letter was sent out to 14,588 wrong addresses, but not posted to 21,349 voters in the Bexhill and Battle constituency.

Spokesman Bill Griffiths said what RDC had done was "absolutely outrageous".

He added: "We have them bang to rights, and are ruling out nothing legally, as they're in clear breach of their statutory duty.

"The position in law is this: every party is entitled to an up-to-date electoral register, which the relevant local authority has to give promptly on demand.

"So when we asked for our copy, that was what we should have got."

He claimed the list sent to the Trust Party was a copy of a register supplied to a Lib Dem candidate for the last European election.

He added: "This meant '“ and it has affected all our mailings, and therefore very tightly worked out spending plans '“ that the figures were almost 50 percent wrong.

"The actual total electorate is 78,553.

"In terms of incorrect names in the register which we were given (for voters who are now actually in Hastings and Rye), that comes to 14,588.

"And as far as names missing from the register (essentially in Wealden), that comes to 21,349, making a grand total of almost 36,000 wrong names, ie, almost half the entire register."

Rother District Council chief executive Derek Stevens, who for the purposes of the general election is the acting returning officer, said: "The Trust Party contacted the council to ask for a copy of the Rother District electoral register, which we were happy to provide.

"How they choose to use the register to gain information for canvassing is not a matter for the council.

"It should be noted that the electoral register for Rother District does not exactly match the names and addresses of people living in the Bexhill and Battle constituency '“ overlapping as it does with parts of Wealden and Hastings.

"The council simply provided the Trust Party with the information they requested in the first instance."