Police investigate councillor over allegations of leaking postal vote results

The Manchester Evening News reports:

A councillor could be jailed over ‘off the cuff’ Twitter remarks made during an election count.

Howard Balkind was reported to police by the far-right BNP for tweeting that the party would be ‘lucky to get 10 votes’ at a by-election last month.

It is alleged that Coun Balkind broke the law by revealing the results of postal votes before polls had closed the Weaste and Seedley ward…

Coun Balkind was interviewed by police under caution on the Friday morning after the complaint was lodged with police then passing the file to the CPS to decide whether to prosecute.

The most famous recent case of someone running into trouble with the law over leaking postal vote information is that of Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, who ended up receiving an official caution from the police in 2010.

Update:

A GMP spokeswoman said: “On Thursday, June 20, police were called following allegations of a breach of section 66 of the Representation of the People Act.

“A man was interviewed under caution at Pendleton police station and the CPS decided that no further action would be taken.”