Peers back all-postal voting experiment

Plans for large-scale all-postal voting trials in elections in June won the backing of the House of Lords yesterday, ending fears of a constitutional clash with the Commons.

The Government carried the day after peers voted five times against the experiments.

All-postal voting pilots will take place in the European Parliament and council elections in the East Midlands, North-east, North-west and Yorkshire and the Humber, covering about 14 million electors.

Peers voted by 138 to 108, a majority of 30, to allow the postal voting trials in the four regions under the European Parliamentary and Local Elections (Pilots) Bill.

Nominations close on 13 May for the council and European elections but time had been running out for council staff, who needed to know which voting system they would be using. Ministers originally backed Electoral Commission proposals for all-postal voting experiments in the East Midlands and the North-east.

But a subsequent attempt to include the North-west and Yorkshire and the Humber provoked opposition from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

Ministers hope that all-postal voting will boost turnout which in the 1999 European elections was just 23 per cent.

A spokesman for the Department of Constitutional Affairs said: "At last, electoral administrators have the green light to put in place preparations for these very important all-postal pilot elections.

"We are confident that regional returning officers can now deliver successful pilots," he added.