DOZENS of soldiers and sailors from Kent who are heading for probable war with Iraq have been robbed of their voting rights because of a council error.

Staff at Medway council forgot to write to 59 men and women when they were updating the voters' register.

The mistake came to light earlier this month. By then thousands were bound for the Gulf. Despite this, Mark Avis, one of the elections assistants at the council, has written to their homes in Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham.

As a precaution they could complete new forms before March 12, but he warned: "If I do not receive your completed application form by this date I will remove your entry from the Register of Electors."

However, many of them are already on ships steaming into the firing line. Cllr Stephen Kearney (Lib Dem) said: "It is absolutely disgraceful.

"These people could soon be fighting for this country, and yet our council has robbed them of the right to vote for (or against) the people that sent them out there."

Jonathan Shaw, MP for Chatham and Aylesford, said: "The responsibility for ensuring elections are run according to the law rests with Medway Council. It needs to be satisfied that it has done everything it can to ensure people are able to participate in elections. Serious questions need to be asked of the council."

The council admitted: "It was an error on the council's part and something for which we can only apologise.

"We appreciate this is a sensitive issue, particularly with some of the armed forces working away at the moment, and we are doing our best to ensure that their right to vote is not affected in May at the local elections."

Their spokeswoman, Fay Coffin, said they were seeking guidance in the event that the armed forces remained mobilised for some time.