Violence casts shadow over Pakistan's milestone election

ISLAMABAD: A string of militant attacks and gunfights that killed at least 15 people cast a long shadow over Pakistan's general election on Saturday, but millions still turned out to vote in a landmark test of the troubled country's democracy.

The poll, in which some 86 million people are eligible to vote, will bring the first transition between civilian governments in a country ruled by the military for more than half of its turbulent history. Despite the searing heat, many went to the polls excited about the prospect of change in a country that is plagued with Taliban militancy, a near-failed economy, endemic corruption, chronic power cuts and crumbling infrastructure.

"The team that we elect today will determine whether the rot will be stemmed or whether we will slide further into the abyss," prominent lawyer Babar Sattar wrote in The News daily.

However, opinion polls have suggested that disenchantment with the two main parties, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N), could mean that no one group emerges with a parliamentary majority, making the next government unstable and too weak to push through much-needed reform.

A late surge of support for the party of former cricket star Imran Khan has made a split mandate all the more likely. Khan, 60, is in hospital after injuring himself in a fall at a party rally, which may also win him sympathy votes. "The timing of such a split couldn't be worse for Pakistan," Sattar said.

"The challenge of terror and economic meltdown confronting us won't wait for a party to be granted (a) clear mandate."

A bomb attack on the office of the Awami National Party (ANP) in the commercial capital, Karachi, killed 11 people and wounded about 40.

At least two were wounded in three blasts that followed, and media reported gunfire in the city. Four died in a gunbattle in the restive province of Balochistan. Several were injured in an explosion that destroyed an ANP office in the insurgency-infected northwest, and there were further casualties in a blast in the city of Peshawar.

The Taliban, who are close to al Qaeda, have killed more than 120 people in election-related violence since April. The group, which is fighting to topple the U.S.-backed government, regards the elections as un-Islamic. The Taliban have focused their anger on secular-leaning parties like the ruling coalition led by the PPP and the ANP.

Many candidates, fearful of being assassinated, avoided open campaigning before the election. A major religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, said it was pulling its candidates out of Karachi because of allegations of vote-rigging by its local rival.