Postal voting is robbing Asian women of the right to take part in democracy, a Birmingham councillor has warned.

Salma Yaqoob (Respect, Sparkbrook) called for a return to the traditional system of voting at polling stations, as she was appointed an advisor to the Government on encouraging more black and Asian women to become involved in politics.

Coun Yaqoob is to be the West Midlands representative on a taskforce designed to find ways of making councils more representative of the communities they serve.

But Ministers also announced that they have ruled out controversial ethnic minority shortlists for Parliamentary elections.

Labour’s Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman, had been pushing for all black and Asian shortlists to get more ethnic minority MPs in the House of Commons, following the introduction of all-women shortlists before the 1997 election.

The proposal, which would require a change in the law, had been highly controversial and opposed by Labour MPs including Sion Simon (Lab Erdington), Khalid Mahmood (Lab Perry Barr) and Roger Godsiff (Lab Sparkbrook & Small Heath).

Ms Harman told the House of Commons: "The Government does not consider that the time is right to take legislative measures to permit all Black and Asian and minority ethnic election shortlists."

However, the taskforce would help make local authorities more representative, she said.

"Empowering black, Asian and minority ethnic women in public life is a key priority for Government. They are a force for good within their communities, and in building bridges between communities. Their contribution must be better recognised and supported.

Only around 168 out of 20,000 councillors are black, Asian or minority ethnic women. This is less than one per cent, even though they make up more than five per of the general population.

Coun Yaqoob said she welcomed the opportunity to take part in the taskforce. She said: "I know the barriers I have faced myself and anything that helps Black, Asian and minority ethnic women to take part at this level is important."

But she said one of the first changes the Government should make was to scrap rules which allow anyone to demand a postal voting form. Before this, postal votes were only provided in exceptional circumstances.

Some critics have warned that this may allow family members or community leaders to dictate how others vote.

Coun Yaqoob said: "A particular issue I want to raise is postal voting on demand. I want to call for it to be scrapped.

"Thousands of Asian women have been denied secret ballots and thousands of ballots have been stolen."

She said she had experienced pressure from within the Asian community not to stand as a councillor.

"There were people saying it wasn’t the job of a woman to be doing this," she added.

But she had experienced no overt racism when she stood as a councillor, she said.

"There are misconceptions. People assume you are only interested in representing part of the community and you have to tell them you want to represent the whole community."

The taskforce will be chaired by Baroness Uddin, the first Muslim woman in the House of Lords. Its task is to encourage women to step forward to become local councillors; identify and tackle barriers within political parties, and reduce disadvantage and stereotyping from within and outside the communities.

Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said: "Democracy at its best should be a reflection of the people it serves and the proportion of councillors from ethnic minority backgrounds represents only half the number of black and minority ethnic people in this country

"It is vitally important that British citizens of whatever background feel that they are represented in democracy and I welcome the work that this taskforce will do to ensure that everyone can have the opportunity to contribute to politics and have their voices heard."