FORMER Green Party county councillor Sushila Dhall confirmed tonight that she was set to petition the High Court in a bid to force a re-run of a county council election.

The Greens claim that hundreds of polling cards were not delivered to voters in the West Central Oxford division and believe that may have influenced the result on June 4.

Ms Dhall has now decided to seek a fresh election in the division in which she lost her seat, after contacting as many voters as possible to find out whether or not they were affected.

The city council, which organises the election, admitted last night that it was a “very unusual situation” and would involve a petition being handed to London’s High Court by Friday.

Ms Dhall said: “I am calling for the election to be re-run in West Central Oxford and I have telephoned the city council’s elections officer to make that request.

“I will be following up that request in writing and I have until Friday to do so.

“Several hundred households in the division did not receive polling cards and did not vote as a result.

“I have looked at the marked registers in streets where they did not receive polling cards.

“Just under a third of people voted in streets where they did not have polling cards, compared to just over half in streets where they did receive them.

“I can’t prove that this would have altered the result, but I think it could have meant a different result, and therefore is an issue of democracy.”

Ms Dhall lost by 128 votes to Liberal Democrat Alan Armitage for the division’s second seat. La-bour’s Susanna Pressel, Oxford’s last Lord Mayor, won the other seat.

Martin John, the city council’s elections officer, confirmed that Ms Dhall had been in touch regarding a re-election. He said: “She would have to make an election petition to the High Court within 21 days of the count, so the deadline is Friday. This is a very unusual situation. It’s true that some polling cards were not delivered in West Central Oxford, and we’re still investigating what happened.

“That will form a major part of our post-election review and we will try to see what checks we can put in place to ensure this does not happen again.”

A judge would then have to decide whether a re-run should take place.

Craig Simmons, leader of the city council’s Green group, said the Green Party in Oxfordshire would support Ms Dhall’s bid for a legal challenge.

He said: “We don’t have a big pot of money for legal battles, but we will support Sushila.”

Following the county council election in the Oxford East division, members of the public came forward to complain about voting irregularities.

It is understood that one voter turned up on polling day to find someone had already voted for him, and the matter was then referred to the police.

Vicky Brandon, a spokesman for Thames Valley Police, said: “Supt Andy Murray is overseeing the investigation into this matter, which is continuing.”

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk