By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A suicide car bomb outside aPakistani election candidate's office killed 37 people in theviolent northwest on Saturday, the last day of campaigning foran election meant to complete a transition to civilian rule.
Separately, police in the south of the country said theyhad foiled another attack planned for polling day on Monday.
Campaigning for the elections to a new parliament andprovincial assemblies has been overshadowed by security fears,especially since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto waskilled in a gun and suicide bomb attack on December 27.Opposition politicians have also complained of vote rigging.
The poll could spell trouble for President PervezMusharraf, a key U.S. ally who stepped down as army chief inNovember, if voters elect a parliament hostile to him.
Voting was postponed from January 8 after Bhutto'sassassination, which raised fears about the nuclear-armedcountry's stability.
Saturday's bomb attack in the town of Parachinar, in theKurram region on the Afghan border, occurred as supporters of acandidate backed by Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party were goinginto his office after a rally, witnesses said.
"We have rechecked and found that 37 people were killed andover 90 wounded," said Interior Ministry spokesman Javed IqbalCheema. He said it was a suicide car bomb.
The northwest has been hit by a surge of violence sinceJuly and while some attacks have taken place in all majorcities there are fears of more.
Police in the southern city of Hyderabad said they hadarrested three suspected suicide bombers believed to beplanning attacks on polling stations and seized 10 kg (22 lb)of explosives and a suicide bomb jacket.
The violence in what has been one of the country'sbloodiest election campaigns has unnerved politicians andvoters, and turnout on Monday could be low despite thedeployment of more than 80,000 troops.
Pakistanis are also concerned about rising prices andshortages of basic commodities such as flour, and ever morefrequent power cuts. Many are disillusioned with politicians.
"It'll be very difficult to change this country," saidMohammad Abbas, who works in a rice shop in Sabboki town inPunjab province. "Whatever the politicians do they do forthemselves, not for change."
Campaigning ends at midnight. Sunday is a cooling-off day.
COALITION LIKELY
The elections follow months of political turmoil over theincreasingly unpopular Musharraf's efforts to stay in power.
Two-time prime minister Bhutto had been hoping to win andher party is expected to reap a sympathy vote.
But with none of the main parties -- the PPP, the PakistanMuslim League that backs Musharraf, and the party of anotherformer prime minister, Nawaz Sharif -- expected to secure amajority, a coalition between two of the three is likely.
Opposition parties say Musharraf's allies have been engagedin widespread pre-poll rigging.
Sharif and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who isleading her party into the vote, met in Lahore on Saturday andwarned of trouble if they were robbed of victory.
"If the opposition is deprived of its rightful place in theelections, I think that will be very dangerous. ... It willthrow the country into a very chaotic situation," Sharif told anews conference.
Zardari told reporters he expected to win but he doubtedthe vote would be fair. "If they want to rig the election, thatwe will not take sitting down," he said.
Asked about his talks with Sharif, Zardari said: "Wediscussed the fact that we can have a broad-based government... the political forces can take responsibility for thecountry."
Musharraf rejects complaints of rigging and says procedureshave been refined to prevent cheating.
He said on Saturday he was positive the vote would be fairand peaceful and that he hoped for a stable government.
"We will ensure a successful fight against terrorism andextremism and we will ensure sustaining economic growth," thestate news agency reported Musharraf as saying.
Nearly 81 million people, about half the population, areregistered to vote. Several hundred foreign observers will bemonitoring but they have not been allowed to conduct exitpolls.
(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony In Islamabad,Hamid Shaikh in Hyderabad, Jon Hemming and Kamran Haider inLahore)
(Writing by Robert Birsel, editing by Tim Pearce)
