IT could be months before police in Burnley conclude their investigations into the local elections proxy votes row in Daneshouse ward.

Det Chief Insp Gary Stephenson, who is leading the inquiry team, said they were investigating a "significant" number of proxy votes which had been cast in the election.

Although some discrepancies came to light when council staff wrote to people for whom a proxy vote had been applied for, an offence is only committed when that proxy is used at the polling station.

A total of 1,150 proxy votes were applied for in Daneshouse ward, the highest number in any area of Lancashire. On May 6 the turnout in the ward was 70.23 per cent.

A large number of police were present at the polling stations in Daneshouse, which was being fought by defending Liberal Democrat Coun Mozaquir Ali and Labour's candidate Saeed Akthar Chaudhary.

Mr Stephenson said: "As a result of actions taken on the day, we have significant lines of inquiries. At this stage we are gathering evidence.

"We are working very closely with Burnley Council but this is a difficult and complex inquiry and it will take us some time to resolve. We are looking at months.

"It is only an offence when someone goes to vote and use a proxy which the other party has not agreed to and in some cases it could become more of a dispute than an offence. In some instances some people have signed their vote away several times.

"We have other people who had no knowledge that someone was registered to vote on their behalf and those are the areas we are looking into."

Coun Ali was returned with a majority of 216.

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