A mayor of a northern town was shot to death and another survived an assassination attempt as fresh violence marred campaigning for next month?s congressional and local elections, officials said yesterday.

Nearly 30 people have been reported killed nationwide as rival candidates, many of them members of long-established political clans, have stepped up their efforts to sway voters ahead of the May 14 polls.

In the latest bloodshed, Mayor Julian Resuello of San Carlos, 100 miles north of Manila, died yesterday after being shot two days earlier by a man at a fiesta, police said. An aide also was killed and five people were wounded, police said.

No arrests have been made, said chief superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil. He said police recommended the province be placed under the control of the Elections Commission, which is authorized to take charge of police forces to stem violence.

In a separate attack, the mayor of Morong town in Bataan province, Norberto Linao Jr., escaped injury after assailants sprayed his house with automatic gunfire Saturday.