FORMER Chorley MP Den Dover will fight for a North West seat in the ground-breaking European elections this summer.

Mr Dover will line up for the Tories against Labour, Liberal Democrat Green and UK Independence candidates.

Voters will go to the polls on June 10 to elect 87 MEPs to represent the UK in the European Parliament in Strasbourg and Brussels.

And the elections will be the first ever in Britain to be decided by proportional representation.

The old system of individual European Constituencies in Britain is being replaced by 11 large electoral regions - the North West, Eastern, East Midlands, London, North East, South East, South West, West Midlands, Yorkshire/Humber, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland remains a distinct electoral region with its own PR system.

Each region will have between four and 11 MEPs - the North West will have 10 seats - and voters will cast a single vote either for a party list or an independent candidate.

Prospects are that more people will turn out to vote in the UK as proportional representation means every vote will count.

Turn out for European elections in the UK has been consistently low, although it slowly increased from 31 per cent in 1979 to more than 36 per cent in 1994.

The full list of NW candidates is:

Labour: Arlene McCarthy (MEP), Gary Titley (MEP), Terry Wynn (MEP), Brian Simpson (MEP), Tony Cunningham (MEP), Mark Hendrick (MEP), Ruth Turner, Claire Nangle, Michael Ward and Teresa Griffin.

Conservative: Lord Inglewood, Sir Robert Atkins, David Sumberg, Den Dover, Jacqui Foster, David Newns, Andrew Reid, Bill Wiggin, Andrew Pearce, Neil Carmichael.

Liberal Democrat: Chris Davies, Flo Clucas, Tim Farron, Patsy Calton, Roger Putman, Yasmin Zalzala, Kiron Reid, Kate Fletcher, Mark Clayton, Jackie Pearcey.

Green: John Whitelegg, Dr Spencer Fitz-Gibbon, Dr Chris Busby, Gina Dowding, Robin Field, Lance Crookes, Julian Parry, Geoffrey Lane Nicholls, Jenny Jones, Joy Hogg.

UK Independence: John Whittaker, Gerald Kelly, Roger Bullock, Gordon Black, Mona McNee, Mark Adams, Valerie Cowell, Graham Cannon, Nicky Sinclaire, Alan Weddell.

Polling day is Thursday, June 10, between 7am and 10pm.

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