BIRMINGHAM'S election system could not have received more damning condemnation than when a High Court judge announced he'd found vote-rigging in the city which would "disgrace a banana republic".
Richard Mawrey QC announced that postal votes in Aston had been forged on "an industrial scale" following the 2004 polls.
Three years later Aston is under investigation once again this time over alleged 'dirty tricks' during this year's local elections.
In October a High Court judge will consider claims that Liberal Democrat candidate Saeed Aehmed was beaten by Labour's Muhammed Afzal as the result of a smear campaign.
Of course nothing has been proven yet.
But whatever the judge's verdict the process used to reach it must be transparent if Birmingham is not to be held up to the world as a laughing stock again.
This country already has a shamefully low turn out rate at local elections.
How can we expect to persuade people that their vote will count when our election system is mired in allegations of vote-rigging and dirty tricks?