POSTAL ballots for tomorrow’s European and local elections were thrown into turmoil last night after a Times investigation uncovered widespread allegations of fraud, vote-stealing and intimidation.

The investigation, which covered two of the four postal ballot regions, suggests that substantial numbers of voters have been intimidated into handing over blank ballot papers or forced to support a certain party. In one case, an employer allegedly told his staff that he would sack them all if they refused to support Labour.

Police are investigating allegations that supporters of mainstream political parties collected ballot papers door to door or filled in blank papers.Superintendent Steve Hartley, of Lancashire police, said that there were complaints against more than one party. “It’s very important that we make sure the elections are seen to be free and fair.”

Opposition parties said that The Times’s findings would lead to further legal challenges where there are close results in the local elections. Many candidates are already threatening to call the elections invalid because of delays in printing and posting ballot papers.

They also called for compulsory postal ballots to be abandoned in future elections and replaced with a choice of postal voting and traditional voting. A poll in yesterday’s Times found one in seven people claimed that they had yet to receive a postal ballot paper.

In Burnley, police are preparing to question 60 people over suspicions about 170 proxy vote applications in the names of white and Asian people.

In Oldham, a Liberal Democrat candidate was arrested last week on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and theft of ballot papers after a family handed over five blank votes. He said he did not think he had committed any offence. A 47-year-old man was arrested yesterday in connection with the same investigation.

The Times’s inquiry in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber regions suggests that all three main parties are breaching the Electoral Commission’s draft guidance which says that supporters should not get involved in handling ballot papers.

The Government has already defied the commission by pressing ahead with postal ballots in four regions instead of two and by inserting a clause into the parliamentary Bill to set up the pilot postal ballots which allows returning officers to notify candidates which voters have returned papers. Liam Fox, the Conservative Party chairman, said that it was becoming increasingly apparent that the Government’s refusal to listen to advice had created a system open to widespread abuse. “The spectre of fraud and intimidation has been brought to the heart of the electoral system by a government which possesses the toxic mixture of arrogance and incompetence.”

Lord Greaves, the Liberal Democrat peer who alerted Parliament to the dangers of ballot-rigging in an all-postal election, said: “I think there is a huge amount of illegal voting going on. Mostly people don’t think they are doing anything wrong because they are sitting around as families or they are voting for their daughters who are away at university. It’s just appalling.”

Lord Rennard, the Lib Dems’ local election co-ordinator, said: “The Government was warned that this system was potentially much more open to abuse than voting in polling stations. They were terrified, however, that their supporters would not turn out at polling stations to support Tony Blair nationally or Labour councillors locally and chose to ignore those warnings.”

In Bradford, where police are patrolling the streets to reduce the risk of intimidation, a campaign for secret ballots was launched to protest against feared irregularities. David Ford, deputy leader of the city’s Green Party, said: “There is a lot of evidence on the ground that fraud is taking place in this election. I hope we never see postal ballots again in this city.”

Bradford council voted unanimously against all-postal votes because of fraud fears but Chris Leslie, the minister responsible for elections, whose Shipley constituency is in the borough, pressed ahead.

One of the allegations being investigated by Lancashire police involves canvassers asking electors to hand over their votes for delivery, raising fears of tampering.

“We advised candidates and agents that they must not post postal votes for people,” Mr Hartley said.

The European elections returning officer for northwest England has been told of allegations of fraud or irregularities in at least four local authority areas.

Police have struggled to find proof of vote-rigging in spite of complaints. The Times was told about incidents by voters who did not want their names made public for fear of reprisals. Sajawal Hussain, a Labour councillor in Bradford, said that voters, especially Asian women, were scared to give evidence. He was “seriously worried” that the election might have to be rerun.

West Yorkshire Police said they had investigated complaints in Bradford and Dewsbury but there was “nothing to substantiate” them. However, Greater Manchester Police are investigating allegations in Tameside, Oldham and Rochdale. “The main type of complaint is that somebody has filled in somebody else’s ballot paper,” a spokeswoman said.

Asked about people being intimidated into handing over their vote and being too scared to tell the police, she said: “How could you prove that a crime had been committed when the victim of the crime won’t say there has been a theft and, if pushed, would say they had filled in their ballot paper? The voters have to have the courage to stand up and say something.”

The Electoral Commission stated in January that it had serious reservations about the disclosure of polling progress information to political parties and candidates before the close of poll. “Whilst undoubtedly parties and candidates will find this helpful in organising their canvassing activities, we are concerned that electors may feel unduly pressurised, or indeed intimidated, to vote and to vote in a particular way by repeated pressure from canvassers,” a spokeswoman said.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs said that while impersonation carried a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment, “there is no evidence that postal voting is any more prone to fraud than conventional voting”.

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