BAHAWALPUR, July 5: District Nazim Tariq Cheema and MPAs elect Dr Muhammad Afzal and Chaudhry Shoaib Karim have termed baseless the rigging allegations in the bypoll on two Punjab Assembly seats in Yazman.

Talking to newsmen here on Monday, the district Nazim claimed that Saturday's bypoll was eighth in series in which the conscious of voters on his appeal had positively responded.

He said that he had not even requested the local population to vote for PPP's Aitzaz Ahsan and Syed Tasneem Nawaz Gardezi in 2002 and 2003 elections, respectively. Instead, he claimed, the people had always reposed confidence in him.

He went on to say that his local opponents could obtain only 15 to 20 votes in each of their villages. He said that PPP district president Riaz Dahar could secure only 1,581 votes in PP-269.

The district Nazim said that his group had eliminated the element of biradarism in this area and the people of every strata of society supported his candidate.

Voters had not come out of their houses as most of the candidates did not beg votes from the people. He said that the Bahawalpur district had left with no political stalwart and now the tendency of supporting the political parties had developed instead.

The Bahawalpur Ittehad, he said, would contest local government elections unitedly. He announced the nomination of former Yazman town committee chairman Chaudhry Abdul Jabbar for the tehsil Nazim slot. He claimed that out of total 375 councillors of Yazman tehsil, 212 would support his candidate on the polling day on July 18.