One million ballot papers 'will miss deadline'

Around a million postal ballot papers for the local and Euro elections will miss their Royal Mail deadline of midnight tonight, the Government conceded today.

Constitutional Affairs Secretary Lord Falconer said the remaining slips would be ready to post "in the next 24 hours".

Councils were working round the clock today to ensure all 14 million voters in postal-only regions would get their vote in time for polling day next week.

Hundreds of council staff had to hand out ballot papers to electors amid fears that mail delivery could not be guaranteed. Papers for the "Super Thursday" elections were supposed to arrive on the doormats of 14 million voters in the four all-postal areas - the East Midlands, the North-East, the North-West and Yorkshire and Humberside - last week.

But a series of technical hitches threatened to plunge the 10 June poll into chaos, with some candidates warning of possible legal action.

Despite this, Lord Falconer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the mass trial of all-postal polls is not in jeopardy and will prove worth it as it will boost turnout.

He said all the papers were now printed but revealed that only 97 per cent were either with the Royal Mail or already distributed. The three per cent failure rate means one million ballots are still not ready.

But he added: "In the next 24 hours I am sure they will all be there - that's what I have been advised by officials.

"That will ensure that the ballot papers can go into the system so that people will get them ... during the course of this week. The vast, vast bulk will be done by midnight. Some of them may be in the early hours of tomorrow morning."

He said critics "could forget" the idea of a legal challenge, and added: "I think we should regard this as something of a success, and not be carping on the edges."

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was accused by shadow regions secretary Bernard Jenkin of being directly responsible for the confusion because he insisted on running huge pilot schemes against the advice of the independent Electoral Commission.

Mr Jenkin said: "The proof of the pudding is whether voters get the right ballot papers at the right time. The scramble to meet the deadline has exposed the chaos of these postal pilots." Tony Blair said at the weekend that all the ballot papers "had better" be delivered on time.