A Birmingham Liberal Democrat candidate has leapt to the top of the ballot paper for May's local polls after changing his name by deed poll.
An official complaint was yesterday lodged with the elections office over the move by Saeed Aehmed in Aston.
Some politicians claim having a name at the top of a ballot paper is worth an extra 150 votes because of the ingrained habit of some electors of ticking whatever name comes first on the voting list. Mr Aehmed has stood in other Birmingham elections for Labour and as a Justice Party candidate under the name of Naim Ahmed.
The insertion of the letter "e" into the 51-year-old Kashmiri's surname leapfrogs him to the head of the Aston ballot paper over Labour candidate Muhammad Afzal, the former cabinet councillor cleared of involvement in the city's postal voting scandal.
It also reinforces his alphabetical preference over two other candidates on the Aston list - British National Party hopeful Pamela Allen and Coun Abdul Aziz who was elected to Aston as a Liberal Democrat but has since joined the Respect party.
Mr Aehmed claimed that his change of name was not a deliberate ploy to take him to the top of the ballot paper. "I changed my name by deed poll more than a month ago and Saeed Aehmed is the proper spelling."
