FOUR years ago, the North-East watched in delicious anticipation as the first hard evidence of a Labour election victory filtered through from Sunderland South.

Already renowned as the constituency first passed the post back in 1992, people felt that Chris Mullin's predictable victory, with an impressive 11 per cent swing, was the shape of things to come on that balmy May night.

Announced just 47 minutes after the polling stations closed, the declaration in Sunderland South broke the record for the quickest ever by ten minutes.

Tomorrow's election in the city's usually safe seat is not expected to signal such a cultural shift, but it will still be keenly watched by the nation - or anyone left who hasn't already turned off during the uninspired limp to the finish line.

The man charged with recording what is again expected to be the first result, Returning Officer Colin Sinclair, speaks with pride of the city's new-found reputation for military-style efficiency and organisation.

"There is a race to declare first and the previous record was, I think, Torbay, who have done this twice in a row," he says. "Sunderland has now equalled that record and we are also first to declare in the last two Parliamentary elections, but also first to declare in recent European elections, so at the moment we are winning the race."

It is also the bookie's favourite to scoop an historic treble, having been installed as 1-4 favourites by William Hill to finish first in their own race.

Mr Sinclair, also Sunderland City Council chief executive, says there is a reason why they traditionally get Jon Snow prematurely excited every four years - and that is teamwork.

He explains: "We do need quite a lot of help from a range of people to make sure that we get the ballot boxes into the leisure centre very quickly. Not least are the police who help us by diverting traffic and turning red lights to green to make sure that vans get here as quickly as possible."

No doubt dodging stacked boxes and men carrying plate-glass windows as they go, the drivers then hand the boxes over to a small army of counters with itchy fingers, waiting to get started.

"We have over 1,000 people working on the day - whether in polling stations or acting as runners with ballot boxes. Then, of course, on the evening we have many hundreds of people actually counting the votes."

Then there are tricks of the trade. "One of the things we have done is to pay particular attention to the thickness of the ballot paper. It's well known that some papers are quicker to count that others so we've tested the paper on a number of banking staff and we think we've got the optimum thickness."

Constituencies planning to declare before midnight include several key seats which could give an early indication of national results.

They are: Keighley, in West Yorkshire - a seven per cent swing from Labour to the Conservatives would see Ann Cryer lose this seat and, at the same time, a similar switch across the country would cost Mr Blair his overall Commons majority.

Birmingham Edgbaston - a five per cent swing from Labour to Tories would oust junior health minister Gisela Stuart here, with a similar movement nationwide slashing Labour's Westminster lead to less than 51, virtually guaranteeing William Hague the Tory leadership for another term.

Putney - a 3.4 per cent swing would remove Labour's Tony Colman, giving the seat to the Tories and suggesting Tony Blair's majority could be cut below 101. This constituency is in the Conservatives' flagship Wandsworth London Borough.

Wrexham - expected to be the first Welsh result. Assembly Member Labour's Dr John Marek, who is retiring from the Commons, had an 11,762 majority in 1997.

Reigate, Surrey - could be the first Tory-defended constituency to declare. Crispin Blunt had a 7,741 majority over Labour in 1997.

But in Sunderland, with 48,000 votes to count - the equivalent of the Stadium of Light at full capacity - there's one thing that spurs them on. Mr Sinclair says: "We really do enjoy running elections and I think the best bit is to be able to stand on the podium and to declare the winner."