ELECTORAL boundary changes in the New Forest mean Sway residents will be voting in a different constituency at the General Election on Thursday, May 6.

Since the old New Forest constituency was divided into two for the 1997 election, Sway has been in the true blue, Tory through-and-through, New Forest West constituency.

A the 2005 election Conservative Desmond Swayne won with a rock-solid 17,285 majority over Liberal Democrat challenger Murari Kaushik.

From May, Sway will become part of New Forest East like its neighbouring communities of Lymington, Boldre and Brockenhurst.

At the 2005 General Election, Conservative Julian Lewis won there with a 6.2 per cent increase in the number of votes to 21,975 from Liberal-Democrat Brian Dash with 15,424.

The change follows a general review of parliamentary constituency boundaries and a public inquiry held in the county in 2002.

Currently the list of candidates is: Julian Lewis (Con), Col Terry Scriven (Lib-Dem), Peter Sopowski (Lab), Beverley Golden (Green Party), Peter Day (UKIP).

New Forest District Council, which is responsible for 105 polling stations, says that electors can check their names are on the electoral register by contacting 023 8028 5445.

Deadline for registration is Tuesday, April 20, which is also the last day for registering for a postal vote.

Forms for both can be downloaded from newforest.gov.uk .