A Birmingham Labour councillor will this week face allegations in court that he won his election illegally using mosque leaders to sway voters.
The first election court hearing in Birmingham since 2007 opens today with a legal challenge to the election of Washwood Heath councillor Ansar Ali Khan.
Coun Khan, who is also chairman of the council's Hodge Hill district committee, won the seat in May with a thumping majority of 7,805 - the largest in Birmingham - and 78 per cent of vote.
But his Liberal Democrat opponent Shamsur Rehman wants the result declared void amid claims that Coun Khan used the backing of mosque leaders and Pakistani politicians to sway voters.
Coun Khan and the Labour Party vehemently deny the allegations which they earlier described as "unsubstantiated" and will contest the hearing.
Presiding over the hearing at the Priory Courts is Judge Timothy Straker QC, who in 2007 dismissed an election case against Labour councillor for Aston Muhammad Afzal.
The case is expected to last for three days.
The challenge follows the success of a case against the controversial former Mayor of Tower Hamlets Lutfur Rahman, which used archaic election laws to argue he had been elected as a result of undue spiritual influence.
Mr Rahman, who was also accused of bribing his own Bangladeshi community, was removed from office as a result of the case.
Mr Rehman, who used to work for a legal firm, will argue that in social media posts Labour candidates in Birmingham were backed by senior leaders from the Victoria Road Mosque in Aston at a festival in Aston Park and suggested it was their duty as Muslims to vote Labour.
But Labour will argue that politicians of all main parties spoke at the event.
