PAKISTAN: An exit poll showed the Pakistan People's Party of exiled former prime minister Ms Benazir Bhutto taking an early lead in the key provinces of Punjab and Sindh in yesterday's general election.
The poll, conducted by Pattan Development Organisation, surveyed 5,850 voters in 50 constituencies around the country as they left voting stations by 1 p.m.. Organisers cautioned against reading too much into the findings.
It showed the PPP ahead, with almost 30 per cent of the vote in Punjab, the most populous province, ahead of the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) with 27 per cent.
The elections should see the return of civilian rule after three years of military dictatorship under President Musharraf, amid apparently sluggish voter turnout and sporadic clashes that left at least two people dead.
Feared terror attacks did not occur, but at least one person was shot dead when pro-government and opposition supporters in southern Sindh province fought each other with axes, wooden sticks and guns, provincial officials said.
Near Multan in Punjab province an activist from the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was shot dead in a village outside Multan in central Punjab province, police said.
Other shooting incidents in the Multan area seriously injured one pro-government supporter, and injured 12, police said.
Polls began closing at 5 p.m. local time after nine hours of voting. Turnout figures were not yet available but poll watchers across the country reported few queues, and some polling stations were empty until lunchtime.
The elections have been promised by Gen Musharraf since he led a bloodless October 1999 coup and pledged a series of reforms to establish "real democracy" after 11 years of what he termed "sham democracy" under former premiers Ms Bhutto and Mr Nawaz Sharif.
But the polls for a 342-seat national assembly and four provincial assemblies have been widely pilloried as engineered to produce a pliant parliament, which Gen Musharraf maintains the power to dismiss.
Gen Musharraf voted near his official Army House residence in Rawalpindi, next to the capital, accompanied by his wife and chatting casually with voters.
He declared he would hand over power to the future prime minister in November. The prime minister will be decided by the party or parties which can claim a majority of national assembly seats.
Steady voting in the first hours after polling began slowed by the middle of the day.
"It's slow. Usually this polling station is crowded but today people are only trickling in," said Mr Irshad Jabeen, presiding officer at a polling station on the main highway in Rawalpindi.
Pick-up trucks flying party flags ferried voters to the polling stations, each guarded by dozens of armed police.
In the religiously conservative north-western tribal areas, poll-watchers said not a single woman had cast ballots as of mid-morning, after vows from tribesmen and Islamic party candidates to prevent women from voting. Candidates in Multan were pessimistic about turnout rates. - (AFP)