SWABI, Dec 20: The Election Commission and the district administration have asked the candidates for two National Assembly and six provincial assembly seats of Swabi district to abide by the code of conduct for the Jan 8 elections.

DCO Muhammad Adil convened a meeting of the candidates on Thursday at the DCO jirga hall. A majority of them turned up for the meeting.

The DCO told the candidates that those who violated the rules would face action because the election activities are being monitored by them to ensure a free and fair election.

He said that on the directive of the Chief Election Commissioner and the caretaker NWFP government they had already taken various measures for making the election fair and peaceful.

Answering a question, he said that they were supposed to provide security to the candidates. However, some requests for Kalashnikov permits had been turned down because issuing them would complicate the situation. Instead of issuing permits to the candidates security had been provided to them by the government.

Answering another question, he said the district police department did not have enough personnel to take all the needed steps and he had already appealed to the provincial home department to deploy the Frontier Constabulary personnel to provide security to the candidates and ensure a free election.

The candidates said they would be abiding by the election code of conduct and all-out efforts would be made to maintain peace in the areas concerned.