BOLTON people will have to catch Wednesday's post if they want to register their postal vote in this year's council election.

Polling day across the country is this Thursday. But for the first time there are no polling stations in Bolton.

Voting is taking place entirely by post in a move aimed at encouraging more people to take part in the local democratic process.

Bolton Council is one of a small number of local authorities taking part in the experiment and over the last two weeks more than 206,000 ballot papers -- in distinctive envelopes marked with a purple flash across one corner -- have been sent out.

And many people have already cast their vote. Election chiefs revealed today that 30 per cent of the electorate have returned their ballot forms.

That means that the postal experiment is likely to be considered a success. With an anticipated last-minute rush, the number of people casting their vote is expected to exceed last year's turnout of 32 per cent.

The outcome of the election could be a cliffhanger.

Labour has a slender two-seat majority on the council and is defending eleven of the 20 seats up for grabs.

The opposition parties have their sights set on bringing an end to Labour's 21-year command of the council chamber.

Labour currently has 31 seats, the Conservatives 16 and the Liberal Democrats 13.

The three main parties are contesting every seat. Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party has five candidates and the Socialist Alliance Against the War has four candidates. There is a solitary Green Party candidate.

Bolton's Returning Officer Bernard Knight urged people not to forget to sign the declaration when they returned their ballot paper. If they did not, their vote would not count. Mr Knight said the returns figure so far of 30 per cent was very encouraging.

"This means around 61,000 people have returned their papers," he said. "It looks as if we will easily exceed the 32 per cent turn out of last year."

Elsewhere in England, several new methods of voting are being piloted -- at supermarket kiosks, on the Internet and even by text message, in a bid to make voting more convenient.

Dr Brian Iddon MP for Bolton South East, said postal voting had made voting easier for disabled people.