PENDLE Council is to spend £19,000 on anti-fraud software for elections.

Under the new electoral administration act, the council, along with other local authorities, has to compare signatures on postal vote declarations with those on the applications, and the new equipment will help speed up the process.

The legislation was introduced after widespread allegations of corruption in the 2004 local election, when access to postal votes was opened up.

After that election, Burnley councillors Manzur Hussein and Mozaquir Ali were convicted of fraud and jailed.

To install the new system, the council will have to buy two licences to use the software and buy a new dedicated server to support it.

Electoral staff said they expected the savings from spending less time on combating fraud to repay the cost of the equipment within its first year of usage.