BURNLEY will go to the polls next week to decide who will replace disgraced ex-councillor Mozaquir Ali in Daneshouse with Stoneyholme And for the first time a candidate for the England First Party will be standing in the town.

The candidate is Steven Smith, who has just come to the end of the five-year ban on standing for public office.

He is one of four candidates bidding for the seat, left vacant when Ali was sacked for electoral fraud.

Smith received the ban from political office when he was sentenced to six months in prison for election fraud in 2002. He admitted allowing false nominations to be submitted for the 2001 elections when he was organiser for the Burnley branch of the British National Party.

The far-right England First Party surfaced in Blackburn last year, when Couns Mark Cotterill and Michael Johnson were elected to the council.

Voters in next Thursday's Burnley elections will also choose a replacement for Brunshaw councillor Donald Hall, who died last year.

However, neither vote will affect the balance of power in the council chamber since the the Liberal Democrat and Conservative coalition holds a majority of five over Labour.

The full list of candidates for Daneshouse is: Shah Hussain (Labour); Mohammed Malik (The Liberal Democrats); Alan Marsden (Conservative) and Steven Smith (England First). In Brunshaw the candidates are: Karen Baker (Labour); Tony Coulson (Conservative); Allen Harris (Liberal Democrat); Paul McDevitt (British National Party).

Mozaquir Ali, of Brougham Street, Burnley, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the returning officer following a trial at Preston Crown Court last year. He was sacked from the council when he failed to appeal against his conviction for which he was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

His co-accused Manzur Hussain, of Milner Street, is still an independent councillor for Daneshouse and Stoneyholme, despite also serving 18 months, because he appealed against his conviction.

Coun Hall, a long-serving councillor and former paratrooper, died in December, aged 59, after a heart attack.

Alison Morville, Burnley Council's elections officer, said: "Two electors from the borough have written to the council asking for a by-election to fill the vacancies."

The current make-up of the council is Liberal Democrat 15, Labour 15, Conservative 5, BNP 7 and Independent 1.