George Galloway, the virulently anti-Israel lawmaker who lost his seat in last week’s British election, has announced that he has begun legal proceedings to overturn the election result in Bradford West.
Galloway, who lost by more than 11,000 votes to Labor candidate Naz Shah, alleged she made “false statements” during the campaign to affect the result, according to the BBC.
He also claimed there was “widespread malpractice” involving postal voting, meaning the result must be “set aside”.
A spokesman for Galloway said a complaint had been made under section 106 of the Representation of the People Act 1983, which related to candidates making false statements during campaigns.
In a further statement, Galloway, who heads the Respect party, said, “It has come to my notice that there has been widespread malpractice in this election, particularly over postal voting.
“We are in the process of compiling the information which will form part of our petition to have the result set aside,” he added.
The Bradford West contest was dogged by claims and counter-claims between Labor and Respect over a number of issues, especially relating to Shah’s family background, noted the Guardian.
Galloway accused Shah of lying about him on Urdu television and of falsely claiming to have been forced into marriage at 15.
According to the Respect party, Shah alleged on the Urdu program that Galloway had travelled to Pakistan and posed as her dead father to obtain her nikah, an Islamic wedding certificate.
Galloway had previously produced a nikah which he claimed showed Shah had actually married her cousin when she was 16. He later admitted he had sent an intermediary in Pakistan to obtain it.
Responding to Galloway’s legal proceedings, a Labor spokesman said the action was “pathetic and without any foundation”.
“George Galloway should accept he was booted out by the people of Bradford West. They saw through his divisive politics and made a positive choice, by a majority of well over 11,000, to elect a brilliant new MP, Naz Shah,” the spokesman said.
Shortly after losing his seat last week, Galloway lamented that “the racists” and “the Zionists” would be celebrating at his loss – despite the fact that he lost to a local Muslim woman.
Galloway’s antics recently included one of his party’s PR people booting a Jewish reporter from an event, and pointing out he was a Jew, at which point Galloway’s crowd turned on the man and began physically assaulting him, calling him a “f**king Jew.”
The MP also recently declared his constituency an “Israel-free zone,” prompting charges of racism, which were also made after he walked out of a public debate when he found out his opponent was Israeli, snarling “I don’t debate with Israelis.”
