Feb 17, 2008, 11:56 GMT
Islamabad - The Pakistani government appealed for unity Sunday as political parties observed a cooling-off period a day ahead of crucial parliamentary elections amid widespread fears of massive rigging by the backers of embattled President Pervez Musharraf.
'We need to unite for the elections,' Information Minister Nasir Memon told a final press conference before polls open at 8 am (0300 GMT) Monday. 'We would expect the maximum participation of the people of Pakistan.'
However, some analysts said they suspect that many of the approximately 80 million registered voters might skip the polls amid fears of election-related violence.
Campaigning for the 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 about 100, local officials 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 December 27 assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
More than 800 international election observers and at least 10,000 Pakistani monitors have been deployed across the country to observe voting and vote counting.
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 Friday when 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 newspaper said in an editorial. 'But the stakes are high. The rigging of elections tomorrow would spell disaster.'
Pakistan is already reeling from a yearlong 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.
Memon said the government and Election Commission of Pakistan have taken unprecedented steps to ensure voting and vote counting were fraud-proof, including the public posting of results by local election officers after ballots are counted in the presence of representatives from each political party.
'We do hope there will be completely free, fair and transparent elections,' he said.
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