A former council boss has attacked all-postal voting following an investigation into fraud allegations in his district.

Tony Elson, the former chief executive of Kirklees Council, reporting on the authority's investigation, said that he had received complaints which seriously undermined the integrity of postal ballots.

Mr Elson told a committee from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister reviewing all-postal ballots: "There have been various rumours and a couple of specific allegations of electoral fraud.

"The most serious was the suggestion that supporters of a particular candidate were representing themselves as supporters of one of his opponents and going door-to-door collecting blank ballot papers to complete."

The potential councillor wanted to fill in the votes himself in a bid to rig the election on June 10, according to Mr Elson.

The fraud allegations were made in a document to the Parliamentary committee probing the pros and cons of all-postal voting. Mr Elson criticised the use of all-postal voting despite turnout rising to 50 percent in the district - an increase of 15 percent.

Late legislation meant it was "virtually impossible" for the council to switch from traditional ballot boxes.

Problems with printing, delivering and collecting ballot papers meant staff were put under pressure in the last hours of the poll.

Mr Elson also cast doubt on all-postal voting because many people required help in filling in forms - which could have put them under pressure to vote for a particular candidate.

He said: "The complexity of the forms, and the fact that we have significant parts of our community who are not literate in English, meant that many people would have requested very direct assistance with the completion of

the papers from friends and neighbours."

He also said the requirement to get a witness to sign the envelope meant people felt the ballot was not secret.

This was the "biggest threat to the integrity of postal voting", he said.

Mr Elson added: "I had a number of complaints, which I suspect were just the tip of the iceberg. For example, I had one e-mail from someone, who was not ultimately prepared to pursue the matter, to say that he had not wished to vote for a particular party because of the stance they had taken on Iraq.

"But when visited by the local councillor he'd felt obliged to complete the papers there and then and demonstrate the fact that he was being supportive of his councillor. Afterwards he regretted having done so."

Mr Elson told the committee: "There is a significant issue which should be considered before we get to a situation where success goes to those parties that are best at pressurising people into supporting them."

In July, the Electoral Commission said that reports of abuse and a lack of public confidence in the all-postal ballot system used in the local and European elections had led it to recommend that future elections return to a mix of postal and ballot box voting.

One report involved allegations of election fraud in Bradford's Great Horton which is subject to an ongoing investigation by police.