Pakistanis put fear aside, head to polls

Braving the threat of violence, voters began lining up this morning to cast their ballots in an election seen as crucial to whether this turbulent country returns to the path of democratic rule or lurches deeper into instability.

Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. across Pakistan, the culmination of a weeks-long campaign marked by the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, suicide bombings by militants and allegations of widespread electoral irregularities.

Here in Lahore, the nation’s second-largest city and historically its political and intellectual capital, election workers had barely finished getting briefed and preparing several clear plastic ballot boxes at one polling center when voters began to trickle in.

Mirza Imtiaz Ali came early with his parents to try to avoid any violence that might break out. Hours earlier, a local opposition candidate running for provincial office was reported killed in the neighborhood, not far from Lahore’s old city.

An ink-stained thumb showed that Ali, 29, had cast his ballot -- his first ever. His choice was the nominee from Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party, or PPP, but he said he would be happy with anyone who could oust the ruling party allied with President Pervez Musharraf.

“This government is a failure. There should be change,” said Ali. “In the last eight years Musharraf has failed to provide security for the people. There’s no electricity, no gas, no flour.”

Trucker Mohammed Tariq, 38, also showed up early. As police hovered outside the polling center, inside a girls school, he said: “We’re not afraid of anybody. Only God.”

Begum Shehnaz, a tiny woman in a pink shalwar kameez, the traditional trousers and tunic, whispered: “I vote because my husband tells me to, for who he tells me to.” She clutched a ballot marked with a bicycle, the symbol of the president’s party.

The army was called out to protect polling places from attacks such as the deadly car bombing Saturday that struck a PPP rally in the nation’s lawless northwest. Authorities said Sunday that the death toll from that attack, in the town of Parachinar in Pakistan’s tribal belt, had climbed to 47.

In the eyes of many, today’s parliamentary elections are a referendum on Musharraf, the former general who took power in a military coup more than eight years ago. Musharraf is strongly backed by the White House as a front-line ally in the U.S.-declared war on terrorism, but his popularity is perilously low among his own people, who blame him for problems as diverse as the steep rise in prices for basic goods and alleged manipulation of the judiciary to stay in power.

“This election is our revenge,” said poll worker Adil Mustafa, who was helping the day’s first few voters to find their names on the rolls at a polling center in Islamabad, the capital.

With 64,000 polling stations nationwide, some in remote villages, it could be days before the caretaker government announces a definitive result and independent election observers conclude whether the balloting was free and fair.

The main opposition parties accuse Musharraf and his allies of employing intimidation tactics throughout the campaign and say that the question is not whether the vote will be rigged but rather how extensively. The beleaguered president, who has confidently predicted a resounding victory for his allies despite indications to the contrary in most voter surveys, has warned that any violent reaction to the election results would be met with an iron fist.

Many Pakistanis, whose country has reeled from one crisis to the next over the last year, and indeed for much of its 60-year history, are already bracing for a potentially bloody aftermath.

Taj Haider, a senior official of the PPP, said that reining in public and party anger might prove impossible if the outcome of the election seems blatantly skewed.

“People are in a very rough mood. Their leader has been killed, and they can’t do anything,” Haider said, referring to Bhutto’s assassination Dec. 27, which spawned deadly riots. “It’s very difficult for us to try to stop them. We can only make appeals. We have been peaceful all along, but how long can we stop the people?”

The PPP is expected to garner a significant sympathy vote.

Reflecting how fluid the situation has been, analysts were divided over whether turnout at the polls would be damped by security fears and cynicism over potential vote-rigging or boosted by the desire to deliver a stinging rebuke to Musharraf, whom many consider at least indirectly responsible for Bhutto’s killing.

“There’s a very frightened and hesitant mood,” said journalist and author Ahmed Rashid. “On the other hand, there’s a strong feeling that people feel they owe it to Benazir to turn out.”

Worldwide scrutiny of the election has been unusually high. In addition to international election-monitoring groups, several U.S. lawmakers are on hand to observe proceedings in a country that Western powers regard as a key bulwark against Al Qaeda.

“This is a strategic place -- it would be horrific to lose it,” said Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas).

Plenty of Pakistanis also are keenly aware of the importance of their first genuinely contested election in years. The Free and Fair Election Network, an umbrella organization comprising various civic groups, recruited 20,000 monitors who have fanned out across the country to keep an eye on proceedings in two-thirds of all voting centers.

“They’ll be sitting there in those polling stations till the counting is done,” said Sadiqa Salahuddin, the network’s coordinator in Sindh province, which has been beset by campaign violence.

Campaigning formally ended Saturday. On Sunday in Karachi, the capital of Sindh and Pakistan’s biggest city, party offices were nearly empty. Campaign banners fluttered above streets normally teeming with people but quiet and subdued a day before the election. The banners prominently featured the pictorial symbols that help illiterate voters identify the various parties, such as a kite, an arrow or a bicycle.

In Islamabad, many residents had returned to their home villages to cast ballots, their shops and businesses in the capital shuttered.

There was fear about going out today to vote, but resident Ayaz Khan expressed his determination to cast a ballot. “Of course I’m scared. I would be foolish not to be,” said Khan, who was getting his hair trimmed at an open-air barbershop. “But I feel I am doing my duty.”

--

henry.chu@latimes.com

laura.king@latimes.com

Chu reported from Lahore and Karachi and King from Islamabad.