Assembly election 'free of fraud'

The report is critical of the vote counting process

The body that regulates UK elections is set to report that it identified no fraud in last autumn's assembly poll in Northern Ireland.

The Electoral Commission will, however, be critical of the vote-counting process.

In some constituencies, the count took as long as 24 hours to declare a result.

In a 200 page report to be published in Belfast on Thursday, the Electoral Commission will examine in detail how the assembly poll was conducted.

Last November's election was the first province-wide poll to be held under the Electoral Fraud Act.

This legislation was introduced following claims that Sinn Fein was engaged in widespread voter fraud - an allegation hotly denied by republicans.

Efficiency

The act required voters to register individually to vote, and to present valid photo identification at the voting station, ensuring the tightest voting rules in Europe.

As a result, the commission is set to reveal that it found the election to be free of fraud.

"This is the first election on a Northern Ireland-wide basis where the Electoral Fraud Act could be tested," said a well-placed source.

"The commission hasn't identified any fraud having taken place."

The new rules however appear to have depressed voter registration numbers, according to BBC Northern Ireland political correspondent Martina Purdy.

In fact, there were 100,000 fewer votes cast in the last assembly poll.

Despite this, the November count took longer than the 1998 assembly poll.

There is speculation the commission will express concern about this and make a number of recommendations to improve the efficiency of the counting process.