Campaigners in Diss are urging residents to make sure they are registered to vote.

With a new voting registration system due to come into effect next month it is thought that 12,000 local residents in the Diss area are potentially missing from the new electoral register.

An estimated 1.9 million people nationally are expected to fall off the register next month.

After December 1 anyone who is absent from the new Individual Electoral Register (IER) will not be included in population counts when the Government draws up new constituency boundaries in 2016.

The IER is meant to improve the accuracy of the register and to counter fraud.

The change to the new system was originally planned for 2016, however the Government has brought this forward by a year to December 2015.

The result is that despite efforts by councils to move people to the new register, many people will not be included.

Analysis by the Electoral Commission suggests that students, young adults, private renters and home-movers are most likely to be affected by the change.

Local campaigners are urging people to check with their local Electoral Registration Officer to ensure they have been successfully moved over to the new IER.

Anyone not registered can sign up online via www.gov.uk/register-to-vote, using their National Insurance Number and date of birth.