LAKKI MARWAT: Several losing candidates for district and tehsil councils have demanded of the Election Commission of Palcistan (ECP) to probe rigging in the May 30 local government elections and order re-polling in their respective constituencies.

Talking to this correspondent here on Wednesday, these candidates, including Habibur Rehman and Farmanullah, said that many women voters were deprived of their right to vote at a polling station in Zangikhel village of Esakkhel ward. `About 200 women voters were present on the premises of the polling station at around 5:00pm, but the presiding officer did not allow them to cast votes,` they alleged.

They also said that firing in the air by law enforcers caused a stampede and taking advantage of the situation their political rivals entered the polling station and burnt the polled votes.

An elder from Zangikhel village, Mir Nawaz, said that both the female presiding officer and polling officer were from the locality and the returning officer should not have deployed them at the polling stations of their native locality.

The elder and the candidates demanded of the ECP to order fresh election at the polling station where polled votes were set on fire.

Several other candidates gathered at the Municipal Park in Lakl(i city and recorded their protest. Noted among them were candidates for general seats of the district council Mohammad Jamil, Mohammad Arif, Mohammad Hanif and Shah Nawaz and candidates for tehsil council, including Falk Nawaz, Asal Jan, Abdullah Abid and others.

Shah Nawaz said that mismanagement and poor arrangements at the polling stations caused closure of polling process on several occasions. `In Mash Masti Khani middle school some influential first forced the polling agents to leave polling stations and then started stamping ballot papers,`, he claimed.

Other losing candidates alleged that at the polling station in Shamoni Khattak hundreds of male and female voters were deprived of polling their vote while a polling station in Mash Habibullah middle school was closed at gunpoint.

Mohammad Ibrahim and Sahib Nawaz, candidates for district council from Abdulkhel ward and Sabz Ali Khan and Mohammad Yaqoob, candidates from Tiiterkhel ward, also asked the ECP to remove the grievances of candidates.

KILLED: A man was shot dead and another injured over a blood feud in Wanda Aurangzeb village on Wednesday.

A police of ficial said that the incident took place in Kurrum Par near Daddiwala police station. He said that the alleged attackers, including Farhad, Sharif, Naeem and Naseer, opened fire at their rivals, leaving Bashir Khan dead and Shahidullah seriously injured. A case has been registered against the alleged killers.