COUNCIL bosses have drawn up plans to manually check 7,000 election papers following concerns over a high-tech electronic system.

The technology was introduced in a bid to crackdown on postal voting fraud, such as that carried out by Burnley councillors Mozaquir Ali and Manzur Hussain, who were jailed for 18 months in November.

But dozens of councils have voiced concerns ahead of the local elections in May that software for automatically checking signatures on postal votes had not been properly tested and could fail.

As a result, Burnley Council has drawn up plans to examine around 7,000 papers manually.

However, Steve Rumbelow, the chief executive of Burnley Borough Council, said he was still confident they would not need to resort to the manual checking.

He said: "The installation and operation of the postal vote identification technology is on track and on schedule, and we have confidence in our technology partner, Northgate Information Solutions.

"As with all new technologies, there have been the usual teething problems, but these have been successfully resolved through working in close partnership with our supplier.

"Burnley Borough Council is committed to delivering e-enabled democracy for our citizens. We are looking forward to the successful electronic validation of postal votes for the elections on May 3. This will be a great leap forward for the democratic process."

Burnley council leader Gordon Birtwistle said: "The system is a good idea and I hope the problems are sorted out in time for the elections."The town's MP Kitty Usher said: "My main concern is that the election is conducted fairly and there's no opportunity for people to vote fraudulently."

Malcolm Dumper, policy director at the Association of Electoral Administrators, said many representatives had raised the issue at their annual conference earlier this month.

And the UK's standards watchdog, Sir Alistair Graham - who has expressed concern about links between postal voting and electoral fraud - described the situation as "shocking".

He said: "I think it's a pretty shocking state of affairs when we've got such a serious question mark over our May polls."

But a Department for Constitutional Affairs spokesman said they did not believe IT problems were an issue for all returning officers.

He said: "We have worked closely with suppliers to ensure they will have appropriate products available, and continue to do so."

Ali, of Brougham Street, and Hussain, of Milner Street were jailed for 18 months in November for conspiracy to defraud the returning officer in the May 2004 poll.