RAWALPINDI – Pakistan's top military command, on the request of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), has deployed army personnel at most sensitive polling stations across the country, Geo News reported. The decision to deploy army at most sensitive polling stations is being made on the advice of civil administration concerned, intelligence agencies and other security organizations. The Taliban on Friday stepped up their threats against the landmark elections, warning voters to boycott polling stations to save their lives as deadly attacks targeted party offices. Campaigning ended at midnight with impassioned pleas for votes from frontrunner Nawaz Sharif bidding for a historic third term as prime minister, and cricket star Imran Khan looking for a breakthrough. The ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has run a lackluster and rudderless campaign in the face of the threats and with its chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, too young to run. The election commission says that 179 million ballot papers are being distributed to around 70,000 polling stations nationwide under army supervision. Most commentators expect Sharif's center-right Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) to win but it remains unclear how far Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) can provide an upset. More than 600,000 security personnel, including tens of thousands of soldiers, have been ordered to deploy to guard against attacks on polling day. On Friday, gunmen attacked an armed convoy carrying ballot papers in Mastung district, south of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province. In the northwest, a motorbike bomb killed four people and wounded 15 close to offices of different parties in the main town of North Waziristan, the premier stronghold of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked groups on the Afghan border. Saturday's polls are the first time in Pakistan's turbulent history that an elected civilian administration has handed power to another through the ballot box. The nuclear-armed state has been ruled by the military for half its life. More than 86 million voters have from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to elect 272 lawmakers to the 342-member national assembly and lawmakers to four provincial assemblies. Meanwhile, President Asif Ali Zardari and his two daughters have voted by post, a spokesman of the Pakistan People's Party confirmed on the eve of polls which the Taliban have vowed to attack with suicide bombers. – Agencies
