Pakistan tense on election eve

Pakistani opposition politicians warned against vote rigging yesterday, the eve of a general election that could usher in a Parliament intent on forcing US ally President Pervez Musharraf from power.

Fears of militant violence have overshadowed the campaign, and are expected to result in a low turnout.

A suicide bomber killed 47 people in an attack on supporters of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Saturday. The election was postponed after Mrs Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack on December 27 as she left a rally in Rawalpindi.

Her death heightened concern about the nuclear-armed country's future, with intent on destabilising the Muslim nation of 160 million people.

It is not a presidential election but former army chief Mr Musharraf's unpopularity is expected to be a decisive factor in today's vote for a new Parliament and provincial assemblies.

The opposition, however, says pre-poll rigging has damaged their chances.

"It is more than clear that a massive rigging plan is in place and has been implemented," former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whom President Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, told a news conference in the eastern city of Lahore.

Mr Sharif and the other main opposition party, Mrs Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), have vowed to launch protests if they are robbed of victory.

"We and the People's Party must win more than a simple majority. If we are deprived of that it means there has been massive rigging and we will both call for protests," Mr Sharif said.

PPP senator Latif Khosa told reporters Mr Musharraf's allies had prepared hundreds of "ghost" polling stations where ballot boxes would be stuffed with votes for the Pakistan Muslim League (PML).

Street protests over the result would raise questions about how the powerful military might react.

But if the opposition does as well as opinion polls suggest, a hostile Parliament could challenge the constitutionality of Mr Musharraf's re-election in October for another five-year term by the last Parliament.

That too could herald turmoil.

President Musharraf's popularity was hurt when he tried to dismiss Pakistan's top judge in March, and took a further dive in November when he imposed six weeks of emergency rule to stymie legal challenges to his re-election.

Many Pakistanis say they are disillusioned with politics.

"What have these politicians ever done for us? They never fulfil their pre-election promises," said truck driver Sadaqat Ali as he sipped tea from a broken cup at a cafe near Islamabad.

Mr Musharraf, who retired from the army in November, has vowed the vote will be fair, and says he is ready to work with whichever party forms a government and chooses a Prime Minister.

Like Pakistan's Western allies and its neighbours, Mr Musharraf says he wants a stable government which can focus on tackling and driving economic growth.

Many Pakistanis blame the government for rising prices and shortages of staples.

Another decisive factor in the election, analysts say, will be the strength of a sympathy vote for Mrs Bhutto's party.

But with none of the main parties - the PPP, the pro-Musharraf PML and Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) - are expected to secure a majority, raising the prospect of a coalition between two of the three.

Mr Sharif's party has said it will not enter government as long as Mr Musharraf is President. The PPP has left its options open.