Damning allegations cast doubt over mandatory all postal ballots. 

An article in The Times on 5 Aug casts doubts over the future of all postal ballots after allegations of fraud, bribery and intimidation.  The incidents were said to have occurred during the local and European elections in June 2004, a string of allegations caused the electoral commission to look into the system and it is expected to put forward a series of recommendations soon. 

The Lewisham Central by-election in 2003 was an all postal ballot and the voter turn out was up marginally when compared with other by-elections in the borough. The turn out in June 2004 was significantly higher than average for a by-election despite being a normal ballot box election. The increased turn out was almost certainly due to the fact that the by-election was held at the same time as the London mayoral, London assembly and European elections.

 Conservative Parliamentory spokesman for East Lewisham James Cleverly, says:

 'I feel that forcing people to have a postal vote is contrary to the principles of democracy and until there are safeguards in place to prevent abuse of the system the option to vote in secret, in a polling booth should be maintained.'