THE government has been urged to drop plans to expand postal voting in the North West.

The Electoral Commission was considering introducing universal postal voting for next year's European and council elections, a move which would see the end of ballot stations.

The North West was being considered for postal voting in next year's European Parliament and local elections, but today the Electoral Commission announced it did not want changes in the region.

A spokesman for the Electoral Commission said the North West did not meet its criteria and was unsuitable for full postal ballots.

Euro MEP Chris Davies said he was pleased with the decision: "I was concerned that many votes would go missing and that, in some households, fathers would be standing over their wives and children to insist that they voted a particular way."

The move will also be welcomed by the Blackburn Conservatives who said there should be no extension of postal voting until a police investigation had been concluded.

A file has been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, which is still to make a decision about whether anyone should be prosecuted after alleged irregularities were reported during a council election in 2002.

The Electoral Commission report names four areas as being "potentially suitable" for an all-postal vote, including the North West.

However the Commission says that at the moment it cannot make a "positive recommendation" in favour of it until the two pilots in the North East and East Midlands have been completed.

In order of suitability for postal voting the four regions are Scotland, Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West and the West Midlands.

It says that there should be no progress towards all postal voting in Wales, the South East and the South West.