Pakistan went to polls on Monday to elect a new Parliament amid unprecedented security even as fears of violence and rigging loomed large over the election process that will clinch the fate of President Pervez Musharraf. Hours before the polls, the southern Balochistan province was rocked by a series of 20 blasts while a Pakistan Muslim League-N candidate and three other persons were gunned down in two incidents of violence in the central city of Lahore Suspected militants also blew up a polling station in the restive Swat valley in north-western Pakistan.
Over 81 million voters are eligible to take part in the polling that began at 8 am (8.30 am IST). The violent campaign that was marked by the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto and a series of suicide bombings is widely expected to result in a low turnout.
The voting will end at 5 pm (5.30 pm IST) and the first results are expected late Monday night.
Polling has been put off in north-western Parachinar region in Kurram tribal agency where 49 people were killed in a suicide attack on Saturday.
Text: PTI | Photograph: Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images
Image: A man casts his vote at a polling station in Nawabshah, some 200 km from Karachi on Monday.
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