AROUND one in eight people in Worcester are set to use a postal vote at the General Election.

Officials overseeing the election predict that 9,000 of Worcester's 73,000 electors will be voting by mail, up by 2,000 compared to last year's city council elections.

The increase comes after a high-profile court case regarding Birmingham City Council elections found major flaws existed in the system.

"Following the Government's 2001 initiative to relax rules governing votes by post, more and more people are taking up the opportunity to record their election choice by mail, and it's easy to see why," said electoral registration officer Di Thomas.

"The process is very simple: electors simply fill in the ballot paper and send it back. I'm not surprised the numbers are growing, though the scale of the increase - almost doubling over the past two years - has proved to be greater than we'd expected."

She added "every possible safeguard under present regulations" would be used to ensure the vote remains legal.

The system was described as a "cheat's charter" by the Electoral Reform Society after the Birmingham case last month.

There a "vote-rigging factory" was discovered containing hundreds of unsealed forms leading to six councillors being suspended although they deny any wrongdoing.

Voting papers for the county council election - which takes place on Thursday, May 5, at the same time as the General Election - will be stored overnight.

The count will begin at 10am at the Guildhall on Friday, May 6, when the historic building will be closed to the public.

The deadline for postal applications to be submitted to the Guildhall is 5pm tomorrow.