INTERNET voting, which was pioneered at the last Swindon Borough Council elections, will be extended across the country.

Swindon was one of a number of local authorities to try out the system, where votes were registered by e-mail, telephone and post.

It resulted in turnout increasing by five per cent to 31.2 per cent in May compared with the figure for May 2000.

Now local authorities throughout England have been invited to submit bids to run more pilot schemes in next year's local elections.

These will include voting by the internet, by mobile and touch phone, by interactive digital television or by post.

In May, Swindonians where among 2.5million people nationwide to have the chance to vote by alternative means to the usual ballot box.

Swindon deputy returning officer Alan Winchcombe said: "The feedback we've got from the electorate is that they liked it, were happy to vote this way and would like to do it again."

He said he would be compiling a report for the council and the authority might choose to use alternative ways of voting at the next borough council elections in May 2004.

Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford said: "The invitation follows on from the success of last May's pilots.

"Such was the scale of the programme that the UK is quite rightly regarded as being among the pioneers of electoral modernisation."