DEFEATED ward candidate Eve Maley wants to be an MP after losing an 18-month battle to get an election result overturned.

A public inquiry at Hanley Town Hall yesterday ruled the hotly-contested Northwood and Birches Head election in 2008 was held lawfully by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

Independent candidate Mrs Maley came second to Liberal Democrat Dave Sutton by just one vote and he has been serving as ward councillor ever since.

Mrs Maley has spent £7,000 of her money and visited the High Court several times after alleging voting information was not recorded correctly by city council returning officer and head of legal services Paul Hackney.

The public inquiry, which began on Monday, looked into why 742 postal vote envelopes were counted before election night, of which 26 were rejected, leaving 716, but only 715 were accounted for after the official count.

The petition was rejected by electoral commissioner Richard Mawrey, who said it had led to cumulative costs of six figures for both parties.

He said the "missing" vote could be explained by mistakes in the recording of information on the records.

"They seem to be no more than the result of the miscasting of figures which were themselves correct or the misrecording of a rejected postal voting statement which has been discovered and rectified.

"It seems to me that we have eliminated the discrepancies.

"If the discrepancies are eliminated, there is nothing from which a court could draw the inference that a vote might have gone astray.

"In my judgment it has now been established that no vote did go or could have gone astray."

In giving his verdict on the inquiry yesterday, Mr Mawrey told how allegations had originally been made by Mrs Maley about "misconduct" in the counting of votes immediately after the election.

He said this led to a re-examination of the ballots admitted to the count, of the rejected and spoilt forms and to a full recounting of the votes.

But that showed the correct number of ballots had been given to the count officials and no voting papers had been improperly admitted or wrongly rejected.

Mr Mawrey added: "The ballots admitted to the count were then recounted and the result tallied exactly with the result announced at the original count."

But Mr Mawrey rejected an application for Mrs Maley to pay all of the legal costs of the authority's returning officer.

Instead, he said she would have to pay £2,500, which is the minimum figure paid by all people who petition against the results of a local election.

Speaking after the hearing, Mrs Maley, of Eaton Street, Northwood, said she was now looking to become an MP.

She wants to claim Stoke-on-Trent Central MP Mark Fisher's seat in the forthcoming General Election.

Mrs Maley said: "I don't regret doing this at all.

"The inquiry has shown that dozens of mistakes have been made, but they have still come down in the council's favour.

"I'm not just going to give up. This council needs to be challenged and that is why I am going to stand as an MP."

The city council declined to say how much the legal proceedings cost the authority.

A spokesman said: "It has all been covered by our insurance. It has not cost us anything.

"The council is pleased the court has returned a verdict that has validated the result of the election.

"The council is confident that the counting procedures used at elections are robust."