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 took place in the town of Parachinarin the Kurram region on the Afghan border which has seen bloodysectarian clashes between majority Sunni Muslim militants andminority Shi'ites in recent months.
Supporters of a candidate backed by Bhutto's PakistanPeople's Party (PPP) were going into his office after a rally.
"The car was full of explosives and it was rammed into thecrowd as they were entering my office," the candidate, RiazHussain Shah, told Reuters. He said he was not there at thetime.
The Interior Ministry said 37 people were killed and morethan 90 wounded in the blast.
In another suspected suicide attack in the northwest, twocivilians were killed and four soldiers wounded in the Swatvalley, a military official said.
The northwest has been hit by a surge of violence sinceJuly, but attacks have taken place in major cities acrossPakistan and 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.
FEAR
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.
The United States wanted to see an election in which allthe parties can compete fairly, a U.S. spokesman said.
"Violence is not the answer, and we know this latest attackwill not stop the people of Pakistan from voting," said WhiteHouse spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Other big worries for Pakistanis are rising prices andshortages of basic commodities such as flour, and ever morefrequent power cuts. Many are disillusioned with politicians.
Campaigning ends at midnight. Sunday is a cooling-off day.
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 throw the country into a verychaotic situation," Sharif told a news 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.
Musharraf rejects complaints of rigging and says procedureshave been refined to prevent cheating. He said on Saturday thevote would be fair and peaceful and he hoped for a stablegovernment able to fight terrorism and ensure economic growth.
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 and Deborah Charles in Dar es Salaam)
(Writing by Robert Birsel)
