By Augustine Anthony
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani politicians were makingfinal preparations on Sunday for a general election the nextday that could usher in a parliament intent on forcing U.S.ally President Pervez Musharraf from power.
Authorities imposed a curfew in a northwestern town after40 were killed in a suicide bomb attack on supporters ofassassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Saturday.
Fears of violence have overshadowed the campaign, whichofficially ended at midnight on Saturday, especially afteropposition leader Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack onDecember 27 as she left a rally in Rawalpindi.
Voting was postponed from January 8 after Bhutto'sassassination, which raised fears about the nuclear-armedcountry's stability.
Saturday's suicide blast in Parachinar, near the Afghanborder, was the most bloody attack in the campaign and lookedbound to compound fears of election-day violence that analystssay could hurt turnout.
"The election won't make any difference. There's no chanceof any improvement as long as Musharraf is around," said AhmedKhan, a 33-year-old ethnic Pashtun shopkeeper in the town ofTaxila, near Islamabad.
Musharraf's popularity was hurt when he tried to dismissthe country's top judge in March, then took a dive in Novemberwhen he imposed six weeks of emergency rule to stymie legalchallenges to his bid to secure another term as president.
Musharraf is not taking part in the elections for a newparliament and provincial assemblies but his rule looks set tobe a decisive factor in the vote.
SYMPATHY, RIGGING
Other decisive factors, analysts say, will be the strengthof a sympathy vote for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP)and the degree of rigging.
The PPP and the other main opposition party, led by formerprime minister Nawaz Sharif, who Musharraf ousted in a 1999coup, have complained of widespread rigging by Musharraf'sallies and they have vowed street protests if they are robbedof victory.
Musharraf, who stepped down as army chief in November,rejects complaints of rigging and says procedures have beenrefined to prevent cheating.
He said on Saturday he was positive the vote would be fairand peaceful and he hoped for a stable government that wouldfocus on tackling terrorism and economic growth.
Polls open at 8 a.m. (3 a.m. British time).
Ballots will be counted in the polling stations where theyare cast and results are expected to start coming out towardsmidnight on Monday.
The voting trend in the key battleground province ofPunjab, where half of the members of parliament will beelected, should become apparent late on Tuesday morning, withmost unofficial results out later in the day.
But with none of the main parties -- the PPP, thepro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and Sharif'sPakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) -- expected to secure amajority, a coalition between two of the three is likely.
Sharif's party has said it will not enter government solong as Musharraf is president, while the PPP has left optionsopen.
Party leaders were holding final meetings with candidatesand planning final news conferences, party officials said.
Nearly 81 million people, about half the population, areregistered to vote.
Several hundred foreign observers and thousands ofPakistani observers will be monitoring the vote but they havenot been allowed to conduct exit polls.
A European Union monitoring team is expected to announceits preliminary assessment of the vote on Tuesday.
(To read more about the Pakistan election double click on;and visit the Reuters blog "Pakistan: Now or Never?" athttp://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/)
(Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
