A TRIO of visiting councillors have Czeched into Hyndburn to see the borough's democratic election process in action.

Hyndburn Labour Party is playing host to three visitors from the Czech and Slovak Social Democratic Party.

Councillor Jiri Bayer from the Czech Republic is an electrician, and councillors Stefan Kireta and Anton Elias are both teachers from the Slovak Republic.

Constituency Party secretary, Bill Whittaker, said: "Since the 'velvet revolution' in 1989, the former Czechoslovakia has been experiencing democratic elections for the first time since the country was invaded by Hitler in 1938.

"Exchange visits are of great mutual value. Our visitors can experience an election system that is markedly different than their own.

"The proportional representation system used by our visitors, means the counting of votes takes place over a couple of days.

"They have nothing like the 'sudden death' count on the night of the election," added Mr Whittaker.

During their stay, the visitors have helped with election-time tasks such as delivering leaflets.

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