ELECTION bosses have called in police to run fingerprint tests on an important document after the original went missing from a town hall and a copy was left in its place.

If "dabs" are found on the papers, councillors may be asked to provide their finger prints in a bid to track down any offender.

The "Proxygate" row erupted in Pendle as council solicitor Philip Mousdale today confirmed the election office list containing the names of several hundred people who had registered for proxy votes had been photocopied many days before it was due to become a public document.

He said an internal inquiry was taking place, but added there was no good reason for any member of the election office staff to want a copy of the draft proxy list.

He said only staff and councillors would normally have access to the office which was unlocked. We have asked the police to involve themselves in the inquiry by taking fingerprints of the copy and seeing what they find," he said.

Election staff were alerted after receiving a call from the Liberal Democrats saying they understood a copy of the draft document was circulating.

Mr Mousdale said he was not sure what would happen if finger prints were found on the photocopy. But today both Liberal and Labour bosses said they would be more than happy to co-operate with police in finger print tests of their councillors or candidates.

Council staff had been checking the working document, which was several pages long, to ensure the applications were legitimate and there were no duplications, before the final lists were agreed and published, said Mr Mousdale.

Early access could have been of use to a political party wishing to see who their opponents had registered for proxy votes, enabling them to intervene.

It is clear that if Pendle's "Proxygate" resulted from a burglary, it was a bungle -- with the perpetrator grabbing the original rather than the copy, leaving clear evidence of wrong-doing.

The latest election turmoil comes a week after police were called in to investigate allegations of forged proxy and postal vote applications as the the local election battle reached it height, with both the main Labour and LibDem parties making claims of wrongdoing against the other.