The British National Party claims to be in favour of democracy. In fact, it claims that only they are true democrats and the existing political democratic system is a sham. The BNP says it is in favour of an alternative democracy but fails to spell it out. However, over the years a number of BNP leaders have given us an insight into their idea of democracy.

BNP leader Nick Griffin's disdain for the political process was evident when he told supporters in 1996 that the BNP needed to be perceived as 'a strong, disciplined organisation with the ability to back up its slogan, 'Defend Rights for Whites, with well directed boots and fists. When the crunch comes, power is the product of force and will, not of rational debate.'

The BNP stands in elections in order to promote its racist agenda and as a recruitment tool. Its contempt for democracy is shown by how it regularly abuses the election rules.

In the June 1999 elections, as many as 15 BNP candidates, out of a total of 79, gave false addresses on their nomination forms. In Scotland, where the BNP fielded eight candidates, seven were not living at the addresses given on their nomination forms.

Colin Smith, a key member of the BNP gave an address in Beckton, despite actually living in Bexleyheath. In May 1998, Smith stood in two local council elections simultaneously, using separate addresses to meet the residence requirement in each case.

One candidate, Paul Henderson, stood under a false name. Paul Jonsson, the BNP's Woking Organiser, has used the name Paul Henderson more than once when standing in elections. The name Henderson was used to prevent people from discovering his employment at WTN Corporation Ltd, a television news station owned by Associated Press.

More recently, the BNP has been accused of duping elderly voters into signing election nomination forms in a council by-election in Three Rivers, Hertfordshire in November 2000. Several people who signed the form nominating BNP member Ian Edwards later complained that they were unaware of what they were signing, including an 80-year-old Labour Party member.

In May 2001, six BNP council candidates in Burnley were excluded after it was discovered that several of the people who were supposed to have signed the nomination papers denied doing so. The BNP Organiser for Burnley was convicted of election fraud and sentenced to jail for six months in 2002. He had forged his nomination papers when he stood in the general election of 2001.

These facts prove the BNP's total disregard for democracy. Democracy would, after all, be swept away if the BNP ever gained power.

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