'My postal vote was eaten by a dog'

Suffolk will be represented by eight MPs after the creation of a new constituency

A constituent had to have their postal vote reissued after it was eaten by a dog, a council's chief executive has revealed.

People in Suffolk will head to the ballot boxes tomorrow to cast their vote in the general election.

Some constituents have already chosen the candidate they want to see represent them and cast their vote via post.

East Suffolk Council has sent out 16,832 postal votes to homes in the Suffolk Coastal constituency and 14,373 to those in the constituency of Lowestoft.

Chris Bally, East Suffolk Council chief executive, has said one resident's postal vote was eaten by a dog

The local authority has also had to reissue 38 postal slips – one of which had to be sent to the resident whose original copy was gobbled up by a hungry dog.

Chris Bally, the chief executive of East Suffolk Council, said: “We had somebody who had their vote eaten by a dog and somebody who accidentally threw their [vote] in the bin.

“I think all the postal votes were sent by the deadline for applications. We have had 11,000 postal votes back for Suffolk Coastal and 10,000 for Lowestoft.”

After all of the votes have been counted, Suffolk will be represented by eight MPs instead of seven due to the inception of the new constituency of Waveney Valley.

Mr Bally, who spoke to BBC Radio Suffolk presenter Wayne Bavin on the breakfast show, has now asked voters to be “patient and polite” when they attend polling stations.

He said: “The fantastic election teams have been working really long hours and put their shoulders to the wheel to get us in the best position for Thursday.

“It has been a lot busier than usual because we usually know in the first week of May [if] an election is coming.

“To call an election at any time other than that involves a little bit of rejigging. But this time it has been a very, very short time scale.

“So, please be patient – people will get to you.”