Bomb kills 27 on last day of Pak vote campaign

Police in the south of the country said they had foiled another attack planned for polling day on Monday.

Campaigning for the elections to a new Parliament and provincial assemblies has been overshadowed by security fears, especially since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack on Dec. 27. Opposition politicians have also complained of vote rigging.

The poll could spell trouble for President Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally, if voters elect a Parliament hostile to him.

Voting was postponed from Jan. 8 following Bhutto's assassination, which raised fears about the nuclear-armed country's stability.

Saturday's suspected suicide car-bomb attack in the town of Parachinar, in the Kurram region on the Afghan border, occurred as supporters of a candidate backed by Bhutto's party were going into his office after a rally, witnesses said.

"It's a very bad situation. Bodies are lying everywhere but we have not yet counted them," Muneer Hussain Bangash, a doctor in the main government hospital in the northwestern town of Parachinar, said.

The attack on Bhutto and other violent incidents have unnerved politicians and voters and turnout on Monday could be low despite the deployment of more than 80,000 troops.

Pakistanis are also concerned about rising prices and shortages of basic commodities such as wheat flour, and ever more frequent power cuts.

Many are disillusioned with all politicians.

"It'll be very difficult to change this country," said Mohammad Abbas, who works in a rice shop in the town of Sabboki in Punjab province.

"Whatever the politicians do they do for themselves, not for change," said Abbas, who said he would not be voting.

COALITION LIKELY

The elections follow months of political turmoil over the increasingly unpopular Musharraf's efforts to stay in power.

Two-time Prime Minister Bhutto had been hoping to win and her Pakistan People's Party is expected to reap a considerable sympathy vote.

But with none of the main parties -- the PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League that backs Musharraf, and the party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif -- expected to secure a majority, a coalition between two of the three is likely.

Campaigning ends at midnight on Saturday. Sunday is a cooling-off day.

Police in Hyderabad said on Saturday they had arrested three suspected suicide bombers and seized 10 kg of explosives and a suicide-bomb jacket.

"It seems they were planning to attack polling stations on election day," said a police official, adding the three suspects were from the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border.

Opposition parties say Musharraf's allies have been engaged in widespread pre-poll rigging. Sharif and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who is leading her party into the vote, have vowed streets protests if they are robbed of victory.

Musharraf rejects complaints of rigging and says procedures have been refined to prevent cheating. He said on Saturday he was positive the vote would be fair and peaceful and that he hoped for a stable government.

"We will ensure a successful fight against terrorism and extremism and we will ensure sustaining economic growth," the state news agency reported Musharraf as saying.

The Opposition says the Election Commission is subservient to the government and is failing to act on complaints, but commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad dismissed fears of rigging and said everything was ready for the vote.

Gallup Pakistan said it found 51 per cent of people surveyed doubted the elections would be free and fair.