POLLSTERS are predicting that turnout at the general election could be the lowest since 1918.

According to Gallup, just 66% of voters are definitely going to vote in the June 7 ballot. The findings fit the Argus's much less scientific poll of voters in Newport, where two out of six potential voters said they wouldn't be bothering.

But some anti-apathy campaigners say that the parties are to blame for the state of events, which has seen turnout fall consistently, with an all-time low reached two years ago in the European elections of 1999, where just 23% voted.

Mark Townsend, co-founder of the Positive Abstention campaign to increase voter turnout by giving people the option of abstaining, said apathy of electors was not the problem. "The bigger problem is the apathy of the political parties who are not addressing the problem," he said.

"A third of people didn't vote in 1997, estimates for this time are up to two in five. This should be the top issue on every news broadcast every day - yet none of the main parties seems to have a policy on it."

Mr Townsend is campaigning to add an abstention box to ballot papers so that people who don't like any of the candidates can still participate in the democratic process. Dave Brown, Newport and Torfaen co-ordinator of the Right to Vote campaign, works to encourage black and ethnic minorities to use their vote. He too thinks that parties have to accept responsibility for non-voters.

"Most people are not apathetic: they want better facilities, but no-one knocks their door until it's election time to ask what issue they care about. Many people are fed up with the fact that parties don't draw representatives from their communities. There is a feeling that we are invisible, or taken for granted.

"In Newport, where you have the history of Chartism, people struggled for the vote and I tell people we have to use that to better our conditions."

One way political parties have been attempting to combat low turn-out is by offering postal votes. All local authorities are reporting a record number of applications. In Newport, for example, postal vote applications are up 100% on last year. However, many of these are likely to be people who would have voted anyway.

Ultimately, the only poll that really matters is on June 7, but if turnout dips below 65% - to paraphrase former prime minister Neville Chamberlain - whichever side declares itself the winner, all will be losers.

* Gwent is set to become a major election focal point tonight with two major events taking place.

Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo is due to address a rally in Monmouth tonight, while astronomer Sir Patrick Moore speaks to a meeting of the UK Indepen dence Party in Newport. Sir Patrick will be joined by former One Man and His Dog presenter Robin Page.

Both are members of the UKIP and support its policy of pulling out of European Union.