CANDIDATES fighting for election in the city council have spoken out on the new voter registration system, warning that many are losing their vote in the confusion.

Student areas have been particularly hard hit under the new individual voter registration system, candidates have said, and they have seen worrying cases of wrongly registered voters.

Green councillor Andy D'Agorne, campaigning to keep his Fishergate seat, said he has come across instances of seven names registered in a house where only four people live, as the previous student tenants are still registered alongside the new residents.

As The Press reported, there are currently around 3,000 fewer people on the electoral register in York Central than in December 2013, and Cllr D'Agorne said he fears the true situation could be worse if duplicate registering of students is happening widely.

Labour's Hull Road candidate Cllr David Levene added: "Ensuring everyone understands how the new system works and gets registered is proving very difficult. We've been working with the council and the Students Union - we've done leaflet drops and a stall on campus - but the new system clearly doesn't work."

He fears thousands of people, many of them students, could end up disenfranchised on May 7.

The Conservative candidate in Guildhall where many York St John students live, Jack Robinson, 18, said he was urging students to and other voters to make sure they were registered by Monday's deadline.

Register to vote online a www.gov.uk/register-to-vote.