PRINTING blunders have left councils across the north west racing against time to make sure the all-postal "super election" is a success.

At least a dozen councils are yet to supply ballot packs to the Royal Mail ready for posting. The packs - containing voting slips and instructions - were due on May 25 and must, by law, be ready by Tuesday, June 1.

The government said last night it expected returning officers to "rise to the challenge" and denied the election was now in jeopardy.

But a spokesman for the Department of Constitutional Affairs confirmed the election would be open to legal challenge if the packs were not with the Royal Mail by June 1.

Tony Blair told the Commons he would investigate the claims.

Political opponents slammed Labour for ignoring warnings from its own independent election advisers that the north west, with an electorate of 5.1 million, might be too big and complex a region for a postal vote.

Difficulties

Colin Grantham, Conservative group leader on Tameside council, said: "This is the government's mess. Who knows how many voters could now be disenfranchised through no fault of their own?"

The problems first surfaced in Cheshire, where Warrington and the district councils are using the same firm of printers, organised by a private firm of election specialists called Opt2Vote. The councils said their contractor had been unable to meet the deadline because of unspecified "printing difficulties" - but pledged that the packs would be ready on time.

Tameside and Salford are also yet to get their packs to the Royal Mail, which hired extra staff to handle the workload.

In Stockport, a large number of packs, have been delivered to wrong addresses. The council has pledged to send replacements.

Sir Howard Bernstein, regional returning officer for the north west who pledged to make sure "appropriate resources" were in place to make the postal ballot work, called a crisis meeting of election chiefs from 10 areas hit by printing delays last night.

He said today that he was confident the "vast majority" of ballot packs would be delivered to voters by June 1.

He said: "We have also authorised individual local authorities most affected by the delays to make any necessary arrangements they deem appropriate to create additional delivery points in their areas to facilitate the swift return of ballot packs."

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