Few people in East London will have heard of the German politician, Martin Schulz. He is the President of the European Parliament and early last Monday morning took to the airwaves to comment on the delay to the European Election results because Tower Hamlets was hours late in declaring a result.

In 2009, it was London Elects who made a similar complaint about the delay from Tower Hamlets. After 2009 there were numerous complaints about the venue and the process used to count the votes, nothing changed in the intervening five years and on this occasion the complaint came from higher sources.

Sadly despite the fine words from the electoral commission and the police about managing the election in this borough, there was till far too much intimidation at polling stations, and a long and difficult count.

That the police could not guarantee the safety of a member of the Shadow Cabinet when he wanted to leave the count venue that the initial count lasted twenty six hours, followed by a further twelve hour marathon on Sunday and still the last council ward has, at the point of writing, yet to be recounted is a national disgrace.

It is time for those in authority to ensure that elections in this borough are fair accurate and conducted in a way that is the norm elsewhere. In Island Gardens ward there was a 21 per cent difference in votes between the initial count and the first recount. How can that have been right?