Police in Northern Ireland tonight launched an investigation into possible electoral fraud involving postal votes.
The Electoral Office confirmed they had asked the PSNI to start an investigation focused on the Dungannon, Co Tyrone area.
A PSNI spokeswoman said: "Police are carrying out initial inquiries involving a complaint of possible absent voting fraud in the forthcoming election.
"This follows concerns raised by the Electoral Office."
Earlier the Electoral Office revealed there had been a record number of applications for "absent votes" for the May 5 poll.
More than 33,000 applications were made for either postal or proxy votes - up nearly a third on the applications made for last year's European election.
Voters can claim a postal vote if they are sick, going to be on holiday on polling day or away on business.
The Dungannon investigation is the first sign of concern about fraud at the election in Northern Ireland.
However there has been widespread concern about the security of postal voting in mainland Britain in the wake of a series of scandals.
Earlier this month six Birmingham Labour councillors were found guilty of rigging the vote in the 2004 local authority elections.
An election court judge described the extent of the fraud as something that would "disgrace a banana republic".