Welcome to the latest Shopper Rant opinion column. This week's issue is the shambles at polling stations during the general election. Join the debate by adding your comments.

ON Friday morning we were expecting to find out who would be the next prime minister.

Instead, what we got were reports of a hung parliament and hundreds of angry people who had not been allowed to vote.

The political parties spent weeks encouraging people to go out and vote so why were the polling stations not prepared?

It is shocking that in a civilised country people should be denied their democratic right.

If someone has made the effort to leave their home and arrives at a polling station before 10pm then surely they should be allowed to cast their vote.

It is believed police were called to a polling station in Lewisham where around 300 people still had to vote at 10pm.

The council knows how many people live in each constituency and should have been better organised rather than turn people away.

This was not an isolated incident because voters were turned away in Hackney, Islington, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, and Newcastle.

If these voters were included in the count could it have changed the results? We will never know.

News Shopper: Ballot boxes

People arrived at the polling stations up to an hour before they were legally required to close. No-one should have been turned away who had been in the queue at this time.

Polling stations should be open for longer. There are people who are trying to vote after doing a hard day's work and who contribute to this country.

When such an important decision is to be made everyone who wants to vote should be able to.

Disorganisation at this election could discourage people from voting in future elections, which is damaging to the country.

This column is produced by an independent writer and in no way reflects the official position of News Shopper or its parent company.

What do you think caused the polling station problems? Were the issues down to too many people wanting to vote, or bad organisation? What lessons should be learned from this election? Were there any long queues at your local polling station? Add your comments below.

Check News Shopper's website every lunchtime for a new daily opinion column. Tuesday is entertainment, Wednesday is a reader's rant, Thursday will cover a moral issue and Friday is sport. Be sure to have your say if you agree or disagree with what you read.