Pakistanis Turn Out for Key Elections

Three million voters went to the polls Saturday to elect national and provincial lawmakers in what is seen as the first test of public opinion on the two-month-old government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Election officials reported only minor incidents of violence and said turnout was good during the eight hours of balloting to elect legislators to 13 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, and seven provincial assembly seats. Saturday’s by-election was needed in districts where candidates in last November’s general election won more than one seat, or where the vote was postponed because a candidate died. Results are expected today.

The elections commission siad that one of the seats up for grabs in the 237-member National Assembly had already been won by a member of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party who ran uncontested.

The by-election results will indicate whether the Pakistan People’s Party or the opposition Islamic Demorcratic Alliance has gained in popularity, analysts said.

The outcome, however, cannot dent the position of Bhutto, who was named prime minister after her party won 124 seats in the National Assembly in that November vote. Saturday’s vote could bring her party and its allies closer to a two-thirds majority.