Shootouts Mar Pakistan Elections

Shootouts among political rivals killed six people Thursday and marred the first general elections held in Pakistan since a 1999 military coup led by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf ended democratic rule.

The vote for national parliament and four provincial legislatures - involving nearly 100 political parties - is an attempt by Musharraf to give some power back to civilian authorities, but with his two main rivals blocked from running, critics have questioned his commitment to democracy. Polls closed with most major cities reporting a light to moderate turnout.

As Musharraf cast his ballot in the city of Rawalpindi, he said he was satisfied with how the elections were unfolding and that a new prime minister would be sworn in on Nov. 1.

"The people's verdict is final. Power will be handed over to the elected government, whichever party wins," he told reporters.

With first returns not expected until Friday morning local time, pre-election opinion polls predicted a tight race despite complaints that the result will change little. Two exiled former prime ministers were effectively blocked from standing. Musharraf has already put in place laws that would keep him in ultimate control with sweeping executive powers and the army's backing - whatever the ballot's outcome.

Musharraf has insisted he will allow the prime minister to run the country, but he has given himself the power to dissolve parliament and sack the prime minister whenever he sees fit. The general won a controversial referendum earlier this year and will remain president for at least another five years.

In Washington, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called the elections "an important milestone in Pakistan's ongoing transition to democracy."

"We are committed to remaining engaged with Pakistan throughout this transition," Fleischer said, adding that officials from the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan were visiting polling stations.

International observers were monitoring the election amid claims by opposition and human rights groups the vote was being manipulated by the military to consolidate its control. The government denied those charges, promising the balloting would be "transparent and fair."

Throughout the country, security was tight. There were fears of attacks, possibly by extremists opposed to Musharraf's alliance with the United States in its war on terrorism in neighboring Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities have also arrested several suspected spies accused of working for rival India to disrupt the vote.

Hours after the polls opened, one person was killed in a gun battle between loyalists of rival political parties in southern Sindh province. A second person later died of his wounds.

In election-related violence six people have been killed in shootouts at polling stations. The deaths have occurred in eastern Punjab province and southern Sindh.

The gunfights have mostly involved Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and her rivals. Violence is common in Pakistan's rough political landscape.

Razia Parveen, her head wrapped in a traditional scarf, carefully pressed her inked thumb next to her name at a polling station at a boy's school in Islamabad.

"This is my right to vote. God willing, the election will bring some positive change to the country," she said as she slipped her ballot into a battered green box.

The leaders of the two main parties - former prime ministers Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League - are both out of the race.

Still, their parties were expected to provide the stiffest challenge, running neck-and-neck with pro-Musharraf parties in pre-vote surveys.

A Musharraf decree that bars anyone convicted of a crime in absentia eliminated Bhutto, who has been convicted of corruption and is living in self-imposed exile. Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in 1999, is also on the sidelines, having accepted a 10-year exile to Saudi Arabia in return for his release from prison.

A coalition of Islamic hard-liners called the United Action Forum also was expected to win support amid a strong undercurrent of resentment among many Pakistanis over their nation's support for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.

The election was being held under controversial new rules decreed by Musharraf earlier this year. All candidates must have a university degree, a law that eliminated 90 percent of Pakistan's mostly illiterate population.

Musharraf defends his reforms as protection against a return of corrupt and incompetent politicians. But several leading candidates for the pro-government party are also tainted by graft allegations.

Musharraf has promised to stamp out religious extremism but has allowed the leader of an outlawed militant Sunni Muslim group to run in the elections for the National Assembly.

The man, Azim Tariq, heads Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, or Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet, which has been implicated in scores of vicious attacks on Shiite Muslims.

By Kathy Gannon