Many elections in the United Kingdom took place on "Super Thursday", June 10, 2004.
The UK government used this opportunity to trial all-postal voting in both the local and European elections across four regions: North East, North West, East Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber. The government faced heavy criticism from opposition parties due to the decision to over-rule the Electoral Commission's recommendation for no more than three regions to be trialled. There were numerous reports of problems, and due to the delays in passing the legislation many ballot papers were received quite late. However, apart from one ward in Hull where the election had to be re-run, the elections were completed successfully and the turnout in the four regions doubled compared to 1999. Elsewhere turnout increased by half.
Results
The ruling Labour Party polled poorly in the local elections, and was beaten into third place, in terms of share of the vote, after the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats.
Of the minor parties, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party increased their number of councillors, whilst the United Kingdom Independence Party have picked up a handful. The British National Party failed to make predicted gains in Burnley, and lost a seat in Blackburn with Darwen, but took three seats in Epping Forest and four in Bradford.
The UKIP made a much stronger showing in the European Parliament elections, where it increased its number of MEPs from 3 to 12.
See UK local elections, 2004 for the full council results.
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