It will be enlightening to see what the team of Commonwealth election observers find when they come to Birmingham Ladywood in June to view conduct at polling stations and the count.

Of course, eyebrows were raised that part of the delegation is from Uganda – which itself has a “chequered” democratic history – and there are no doubt some politicians asking who they are to judge us.

During the 2015 general election there was a similar delegation in Birmingham which included an observer from Uzbekistan... another ‘bastion of democracy’.

But they proved useful in highlighting not so much industrial scale fraud or vote rigging, but a pattern of low level interference.

Party activists were found harassing voters in and around polling stations – something which is forbidden. They also found families going into polling booths together to vote, fuelling fears that family members were being pressurised to vote a certain way.

Election officials were either unwilling or ill-equipped to step in.

Pictured Ballot boxes Ladywood wards arrive for local council election count at the International Convention Centre, this evening 5th May 2016, Birmingham as voters went to the polls today for elected councillors.

This was happening against a backdrop of the 2004 postal vote fraud scandal in which the city was likened to a ‘banana republic’ by an election court judge.

Since then there has been a continual whiff of suspicion surrounding votes.

Allegations are regularly thrown back and fourth – although many are politically motivated smears which fail to stand up to close scrutiny and there is a simple lack of evidence to sustain others.

In 2015 the council’s ruling Labour group refused opposition calls for the Electoral Commission or other independent observers to be brought in to monitor the conduct of polls.

Instead they simply convened a little-known committee to look over the reports of illegal activity in secret – which seems like an approach Uganda might take to such allegations.

The Conservatives, in their election manifesto, do seem to be looking at vote fraud seriously and want people to show photo ID – a driving licence or passport – when going to vote.

Pictured Ballot boxes Ladywood wards arrive for local council election count at the International Convention Centre, this evening 5th May 2016, Birmingham as voters went to the polls today for elected councillors.

This is something which has been happening in Northern Ireland for some time. They even have a specific Electoral Identity Card for this.

But here Labour bosses suggest the calls are less about preventing fraud and more about political advantage.

It is thought that as many as 7.5 per cent of those who currently vote – about 3.5 million – would not be able to vote if required to show photo ID. Generally, the less well off do not drive or travel abroad and therefore will not possess a passport or driving licence.

It may also hit the badly organised – those with chaotic lives who misplace ID, or who will no longer be able to roll up to a polling station on the way home from the shops or the pub and exercise their democratic right.

If photo ID is to be used, there needs to be a very low cost alternative to the passport. There is also the problem that of all those issues which are raised in Birmingham elections, few if any relate to impersonation in polling stations.

There is much more need to tighten up postal voting which was at the centre of Birmingham’s famous vote fraud.

And having to show a photo at a polling station will not stop the kind of activity identified by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association observers.

What that needs is greater resources pushed towards enforcement – more police on hand and more election staff with the confidence and power to stand up to intimidation from political activists.

Until some action is taken we will continue to be embarrassed by these overseas observers and see our reputation for democracy tarnished.