The Left Party’s nomination committee in Dalarna did little more than an internet search before Mohamed Ali secured the ninth spot on the parliamentary list. Now, the committee chair writes in an internal text message that the 30-year-old parliamentarian, who made it onto the list with 648 personal votes and became a Swedish citizen as recently as February, has deceived them. Meanwhile, criticism within the party is mounting over how the leadership has handled the affair.

The message was sent to colleagues on the committee after police raids at three addresses in Borlänge on October 20, during which IT equipment was seized as part of an investigation into suspected election fraud. The sender is Jenny Larsson, who chairs the Dalarna Left Party’s nomination committee.

– We have been misled and I find it extremely troubling and dishonest of Mohamed.

Jenny Larsson was also responsible for Ali’s background check. According to what she herself writes in a text message to DN, it consisted of a simple Google search, and she points out that there are many people named Mohamed Ali.

Committee member Conny Hansson conducted a phone interview with Ali at the end of January or beginning of February. He did not know at that time that Ali was not yet a Swedish citizen, which is a requirement for sitting in parliament.

– We talked about football. He described himself as a team player. I asked if he had a clean record, and he said he had some debts.

For Hansson, the debts were not a red flag. He believes that the committee cannot go any deeper, as all nominees should be treated equally and there are checks later in the process that the committee does not have access to. Before the interview, he called a party colleague in Ali’s local association in Borlänge. The colleague initially didn’t know who Ali was but then said that he might have attended some meetings.

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Signed Declaration Without Mentioning Debts

Before the election, the party prepared a stricter candidate declaration. Jenny Larsson emailed all candidates on the parliamentary and regional lists and asked them to disclose any problematic circumstances in their lives. Those with serious issues were urged to decline a spot on the list.

Ali thanked her for the email, responded that he looked forward to contributing to the party’s work, and signed the declaration. He did not mention his debts. On March 22, his candidacy was approved without reservations at the party’s election conference in Falun.

By then, he had been a Swedish citizen for one month. Previously, he had been denied citizenship because he was not considered to fulfill the requirement for an honest way of life, and his debts to the enforcement authority amounted to over 163,000 kronor. Ali nominated himself for the list.

Party Veteran: Afraid to Set Demands

Frida Holmgren, 45, and former deputy district chair of the Left Party in Dalarna, is now demanding to see the basis for how Ali ended up on the list. She had expected tougher checks on candidates and calls the party’s crisis management the worst she has seen. Friends in the parliamentary group have warned her that she could potentially be expelled, something she says she doesn’t care about.

– This is connected to our party’s fear of placing demands on people with different backgrounds. And to all that is wrong in the Left Party in Dalarna.

District chair Amanda Dalmans, who took office in March, says the party was caught completely off guard by the votes and does not want to comment on Ali’s debts. Deputy party chair Ida Gabrielsson described the situation a few days before the election in an interview with Dagens ETC. Locally, basically anyone who puts up their hand is put on the lists because the party wants to be nice, she said at the time.

Mohamed Ali received 648 personal votes, 333 of which were in Borlänge, thus taking the party’s only parliamentary seat in Dalarna from climate policy spokesperson Kajsa Fredholm. At the time, he had been a member of the Left Party for barely a year. A week after the election, it became known that prosecutors had opened a preliminary investigation into suspected election fraud connected to campaigns in Borlänge.

Three people are suspects in the investigation. Ali has stated that he is not among them and denies involvement in election fraud. After a period of being on sick leave, he took up his parliamentary role last Thursday.

ALSO READ: Three Suspects in the Election Fraud Case in Borlänge