Several lawmakers voiced serious concern about the integrity of the leadership contest for Britain's main opposition Labour party Wednesday which left-winger Jeremy Corbyn is favourite to win.
Labour, in power between 1997 and 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, lost May's general election to Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, prompting then leader Ed Miliband to step down.
Corbyn, 66, is a socialist who opposes austerity cuts, supports scrapping nuclear weapons and has never held a frontline ministerial position.
The wide support he has drawn, including from younger voters, has taken many commentators by surprise and prompted newspapers to declare an outbreak of "Corbynmania".
But more centrist Labour lawmakers and voters fear his policies would consign the party to electoral oblivion.
As the deadline passed for registering to vote in the election, several Labour lawmakers spoke out to express fears that infiltration by non-Labour members may twist the outcome of the race.
Labour has so far rejected applications from around 1,200 members or supporters of other parties who sought to join the list of registered supporters - at a cost of £3 ($5/four euros) - which would have allowed them to participate in the ballot.
Simon Danczuk, a high-profile Labour lawmaker who has called Corbyn's policies "crazy", called for the contest to be re-run.
"Hearing the horror stories from around the country in terms of entryism... I do think we're moving to a position where the election probably isn't tenable," he told LBC radio.
Another, Graham Stringer, said the race should be paused.
"People who basically have lied when they say they are Labour Party supporters are going to vote in the election," he said on LBC.
Around 440,000 people are eligible to vote in the election, which gets under way on Friday.
Labour says it has "no plans" to suspend or halt the race, whose results are due on September 12.
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