PENDLE Liberal Democrats were today highlighting alleged malpractice over postal votes in the borough during May's local elections.

Councillor Sajjad Karim, the party agent at the polls, and Lord Tony Greaves were calling on the Liberal Democrat Conference to demand tighter controls.

They complained to the borough council and Lancashire police over concerns that the postal vote system had been abused with large numbers of ballot forms going to the same addresses.

Lord Greaves believes there were at least 1,000 postal votes wrongly issued in four key marginal wards -- Bradley, Brierfield, Southfield and Whitefield.

He has already raised the issue with the government through House of Lords Questions.

Today Councillor Karim and Lord Greaves moved a motion at the Brighton conference calling for much tighter controls over the use of postal voting and other alternative forms of voting such as the internet and telephone voting.

And they demanded that everybody should still have their right to cast their vote in secret at a polling station.

The conference backed the motion which opposes compulsory postal voting.

Front bench local government spokesman Don Foster said that the concerns over the security of postal voting and other alternatives to the polling station and ballot box had to be addressed before they were extended.