Postal votes 'open invitation to fraud'

The spectre of a general election dogged by electoral fraud is raised today amid concerns the number of postal votes cast is expected to triple.

The Electoral Commission is warning that simple procedures to prevent vote rigging are still to be put in place - two years after an official report called for new measures to combat fraud.

The watchdog has told the Evening Standard it predicts 15 per cent of votes will be cast by post in the election, expected to be on 5 May. This compares with only five per cent, or 1.4 million votes, in

2001. That in turn was a record

fraud".

and almost double the 738,614 votes cast in 1997 when Tony Blair came to power.

In key marginals, a few hundred postal votes fraudulently cast could alter the outcome. Police are investigating election fraud in six areas of the country following allegations made in recent local elections.

Judge Richard Mawrey, presiding over a case of widespread postal vote rigging in Birmingham last June, has described the present system as "an open invitation to