Pakistan crosses campaign finish line, braces for Monday elections

Feb 17, 2008, 7:32 GMT

Islamabad - Pakistan political parties observed a cooling off period Sunday as campaigning ended for crucial parliamentary elections, amid widespread fears of massive rigging by the government of embattled President Pervez Musharraf.

Campaigning for Monday's nationwide national and provincial parliamentary polls ended at midnight Saturday with more bloodshed.

A suicide car bomber targeting the office of an independent candidate in the country's lawless tribal areas killed at least 40 people and wounded around 100, local media reports said.

More than 80,000 Army soldiers have been put on standby for the elections, which are meant to bring a shift from military to civilian rule in Pakistan but have been overshadowed by the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last December 27.

Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party has vowed to launch mass street protests if the polls are rigged in favor of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, Musharraf's political backers, and the president has threatened retaliation if they do so. Pakistan has a long history of electoral violence and fraud.

'At no time in the past have local and foreign observers been forced to keep their fingers crossed as now,' said an editorial in Sunday's Daily Times. 'There are far too many elements for comfort today who would wish to see the elections go wrong. Nor is the world too reassured of Pakistan's real intentions after it returns to democracy.'

Long-standing allegations of poll rigging flared again last Friday when the US-based Human Rights Watch released an audio recording of Attorney-General Malik Mohammed Qayyum, a close aide of Musharraf, in which he allegedly talked about plans to rig the elections.

In the recording, Qayyum allegedly said the balloting would be 'massively rigged,' the rights' group claimed in a statement. Qayyum denied the claims, saying the recording was faked as part of a conspiracy against him.

'Everything has gone so wrong now that there can be no pulling back for those calling the shots and ruling our fates,' the Dawn news paper said in an editorial. 'But the stakes are high. The rigging of elections tomorrow would spell disaster.'

Pakistan is already reeling from a year-long political crisis that has seen Musharraf twice sack the country's Supreme Court chief justice, declare a state of emergency and suspend the constitution, as well as Bhutto's slaying outside an election rally in the military garrison city of Rawalpindi.

The country has also suffered dozens of suicide bombings by Islamic militants based in the country's lawless tribal areas that have killed more than 1,000 people.

The estimated 80 million registered Pakistani voters will be bracing for more violence tomorrow after polls open at 8 AM (0300 GMT).