An election candidate wants a change in electoral laws after being threatened when he distributed leaflets giving his telephone number.

Fahran Hussain Khokhar claims he has been targeted for the second election running in Bradford.

He has reported the latest threats to the police and this time blames the new Elections Publications Act, which requires details of printers, publishers and candidates to go on leaflets.

Mr Khokhar, Asian League candidate for Bradford West, said he received telephone threats as soon as his leaflets went out, and he was being forced to change his number.

He is the second candidate in the stormy Bradford West constituency to tell police he has been threatened during the campaign.

Imran Hussain, of the UK Independence Party, also reported last week that he suffered anonymous threats, and claimed bribes were offered to try to stop him from registering as a candidate.

Mr Khokhar said paint was thrown over his car and abusive words written on it when he was a candidate in the Bradford Council elections last year.

He added that the new Election Publications Act placed minority party candidates further in the firing line because of regulations covering election leaflets.

They require names and addresses of printers to be given, as well as those of agents and candidates - but the last two can use constituency addresses.

But Mr Khokhar said he put his own address as both printer and promoter because he represented a minor organisation which produced its own publicity material. He said he received a number of calls following the distribution of his leaflets. The caller did not speak.

Later a man spoke in Punjabi, saying he should stop distributing the leaflets "or else", claimed Mr Khokhar.

He said when his wife Shahida answered another call, she was warned the same attack as last time would be carried out unless her husband listened to them.

Mr Khokhar added: "We are a very small organisation. We do publicity ourselves and we have budgets of a few hundred rather than thousands of pounds."

He had contacted the police because his wife feared he would suffer a worse attack than last year.

Mr Khokhar said he was contacting the Electoral Commission - an independent election watchdog - to protest about the law and its effect on minor candidates.

He is also complaining about the threats to Bradford Council's Chief Executive, Ian Stewart, who is Returning Officer.

A spokesman for the Electoral Commission said: "There is a requirement to give the address but it is in the public domain anyway. It is on our website."