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The assassination here in Rawalpindi of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last December, and a wave of violence and suicide bombings that followed, appear to have poisoned the political atmosphere.
Retired Major General Jamshed Ayaz Khan, the president of the independent Institute for Regional Studies, says the country must come together.
Jawed Iqbal Cheema is the spokesman for Pakistan's Interior Ministry.
"Precisely because his popularity has dipped so low and the two mainstream political parties are expected to win the forthcoming parliamentary elections, there is a very strong belief that just to make sure of his own survival he will encourage the PML-Q, the king's party, to actually engage in some kind of rigging so the two mainstream political parties will not be able to come together and form a government which would be so opposed to his own rule," he said.
While terrorism tops the concerns of many Pakistanis, more basic worries like rising prices, a shortage of basic goods and power outages that last for hours confront all but the very wealthy here.
He says the caretaker government and the state-run media are heavily biased in favor of Pakistan Muslim League-Q,louboutin pas cher, the main political party backing President Pervez Musharraf.
"The world is watching us. The national prestige is at stake," he said. "Peace and harmony is at stake and our future is at stake."
While the campaigning is colorful, the reaction from most Pakistanis has been remarkably subdued.
Mehboob's organization has been monitoring the run up to the election for the last 14 months, a period he says that has been very unfair to the opposition.
Election observer Ahmed Bilal Mehboob expects violence to erupt if people believe the election results are manipulated.
The question after the election is whether Pakistan will unite behind the new parliament or disintegrate into chaos.
Tens of thousands of troops have been deployed across Pakistan to improve security before the elections.
The director of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency, Ahmed Bilal Mehboob,casque beats, says many people are frightened by the violence and may be too scared to vote.
By Meredith Buel
Rawalpindi
15 February 2008
President Musharraf,casque beats, however, has repeatedly promised the elections will be free and fair.
Rifaat Hussain,burberry pas cher, a professor at Qaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad,abercrombie, says if parties backing Mr. Musharraf do well, most Pakistanis will believe the results are rigged.
"So we fear that if there is a perception and if there is a reality of some wrongdoing on the day of the election, the reaction is going to be very violent," he said. "It is something which may destabilize the political system of Pakistan."
Voters in Pakistan go to the polls Monday in one of the most crucial elections in the South Asian nation's 60-year history. The elections to four provincial assemblies and the lower house of Parliament come amid a wave of violence and uncertainty following the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel previews the election in this report from Rawalpindi.
Political analysts will be closely watching the returns here in Punjab, Pakistan's largest province.
Monday's vote is seen as key to Pakistan's transition to democracy after eight years of military rule under President Musharraf.
He says the world's attention is on Pakistan, and has indicated there is too much at stake to rig the elections.
They will be in place if riots breakout after the results are announced.
Mr. Musharraf's presidency is not being contested in this election, but if opposition parties win a two-thirds majority in parliament, they would have enough votes to impeach him.
The death of the former prime minister has robbed the opposition of its most popular leader and cast a pall over the electoral process.
Recent polls indicate Mr. Musharraf's popularity is at an all-time low, and opposition parties like Ms. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League faction led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, are expected to do well on election day.
Independent institutions, including television news channels, the judiciary and the legal establishment are still suffering from the impact of Mr. Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule in November that lasted six weeks.
Tanvir Hussain,burberry, a small businessman from the village of Noorpur Shahn, says most Pakistanis are struggling.
"All these arrangements have been made to insure that people cast their vote without any fear in an environment of peace and order,franklin marshall," he said. "Nobody will be allowed to disrupt the polling process or create any law and order situation. Anyone trying to hinder the process shall be dealt with very sternly."
Punjab accounts for more than half of the National Assembly seats and is considered the major battleground in Monday's election.
"Following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto a feeling, a factor of fear has come into the politics and electioneering in the country," he said. "So in general, a voter is very reluctant to be a part of the electioneering and therefore the chances are that relatively less number of voters will be coming out to vote on the day of election."
"Like with India and Pakistan, we have no choice, but to have peace. War we have tried for 60 years,abercrombie france," he said. "So similarly now,abercrombie and fitch, this being the mother of all elections, the stability of the country being at stake, the outside powers watching you with very, very hawkish eyes, everybody looking at you,casque dr dre, we have to insure that we put our act together and there is unity."
"The condition of the common person is so miserable," he said. "Everything is so expensive and commodities which the people use, their price has become double and it is so difficult for a person to survive in the present circumstances."
Election campaign billboards of Pakistan Muslim League-Q Party are seen on the street ahead of parliamentary elections in Lahore, 15 Feb 2008 Everywhere you turn in the famous Raja Bazaar market in Rawalpindi there are signs of the upcoming elections. Giant posters are everywhere. Small groups representing different political parties hand out literature to the swarms of shoppers. Parades of banner waving activists clog the already overcrowded streets.
相关的主题文章： The year 2011 was a momentous one around the world. The shape of the Middle East changed after the Tunisian government fell to people power in January. This event started the Arab Spring that saw Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak resign and popular uprisings spread across the Arab world. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s murder in October completed his country’s successful uprising. There were many natural disasters in 2011. The biggest was the earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of Japan’s northern coastline. It killed 15,840 people and created one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters. Floods in Rio de Janeiro and Thailand killed thousands. The world population officially hit 7 billion, although Osama bin Laden, Apple’s Steve Jobs and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died.
