Labour candidate Singh found guilty

The Herald reports:

A Labour Party candidate in the first Super City elections has been found guilty of two counts of using forged documents but has been acquitted on the remaining 18 electoral fraud allegations he faced.

Daljit Singh has been on trial in the High Court at Auckland on 20 charges of using forged documents to increase his chances of winning a seat on his local board.

The jury of 11 returned their verdicts this afternoon after deliberating for nearly five days.

This was an orchestrated attempt to fraudulently win a local election by an official Labour candidate.

And worse for Labour, even after he was charged with fraud, Labour candidates and MPs had him at their campaign launches. Whale has a photo of him with no less than then Labour Leader Phil Goff in February 2011 – some time after he had been arrested and charged.

You can’t be responsible for what a rogue candidate might do, before you are aware of it. But if after he has been charged, you are having him at campaign launches, and attending fundraisers – then you can be held responsible.