UNCERTAIN FUTURE: 'It looks like we are going to get a weak prime minister backed by an uneasy alliance facing a President who considers himself the best arbiter of the nation's destiny.' - DR ISHTIAQ AHMED, a political science expert

Turnout was low, caused by fears of militant attacks on balloting stations. Despite sunny weather in the populous plains, turnout picked up only after noon.

Only an estimated one-third or fewer of the eligible votes had been cast when polling ended at 5pm local time (8pm Singapore). That compares with 42 per cent in the 2002 polls.

A total of eight people died in election-

related violence - low by the standards of South Asian politics - in polls to pick a new National Assembly and fresh legislatures in all four provinces.

'This may be my last election, and I wanted to assert my right to vote,' 84-year-old Hamida Kamal Ahmed said as she emerged from a booth at an Islamabad women's college.

While she voted for Mr Musharraf's party, her husband and 45-year-old son backed the late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Outside, seven out of 10 voters who showed up could be seen moving to the PPP tent to check the polling lists.

Ms Bhutto's husband, PPP chairman Asif Ali Zardari, voted in his home province of Sindh in an election overshadowed by the assassination of his wife.

He then flew to the capital Islamabad, where he was to begin intense post-election negotiations with Mr Nawaz Sharif, a long-time Bhutto rival who heads the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).

Mr Sharif, who is a former prime minister like the late Ms Bhutto, voted in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, the province that dominates Pakistan's politics and military.

Neither party leader is on the ballot, but both are potential prime ministers in a coalition government that may take shape later in the week, analysts said.

The PPP, initially projected to win big because of the sympathy factor, may not get the expected vote windfall. Thousands of women were simply too scared to show up at polling booths.

'It looks like we are going to get a weak prime minister backed by an uneasy alliance facing a President who considers himself the best arbiter of the nation's destiny,' said Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed, a political science expert in Islamabad.

President Musharraf, who voted in the garrison town of Rawalpindi accompanied by his wife and mother, has said that he would be a 'father figure' to the new prime minister.

'My role as president is simply the checks and balances, the seat belts,' he told British heiress Jemima Goldsmith Khan, who interviewed him for The Independent newspaper.

The President may retain considerable influence because efforts by the Bhuttos and Mr Sharif to agree on seat adjustments before the polls had failed to make headway.

The Bhuttos have been out of power for 11 years, while Mr Sharif was ousted in a military coup led by then-army chief Musharraf in 1999.

The Bhuttos are from Sindh, while Mr Sharif is from vote-rich Punjab, which had 148 of the 272 seats in the National Assembly.

However, sympathy over Ms Bhutto's murder was expected to tilt the voting percentage towards the PPP.

'Typically, the floating vote is about 30 per cent of the ballot,' said Mr Ikram Sehgal, a political analyst and expert on military issues. 'The majority are committed voters.'

While Mr Musharraf is also not a candidate, the polls are widely seen as a referendum on the legitimacy of his continued grip on power.

The party that supports him, the Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid-e-Azam, is expected to place third, with regional outfits taking up the rump.

Much of the swing towards the PPP projected by some opinion polls would be from this group, analysts said.

The sacking of the chief justice of the Supreme Court last year and army action against a mosque in Islamabad taken over by Islamic militants, in which scores of children and women were killed, had eroded Mr Musharraf's popularity. That has been compounded by inflation in food prices and power shortages.

If the two mainstream parties gather more than two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly, the President may even come under the threat of impeachment. Mr Sharif is implacably opposed to the former general.

Mr Zardari is no friend to Mr Musharraf either, but may be more inclined to make a deal with the President in order to give his party a shot at power. For that reason, Mr Musharraf, who continues to have the backing of the all-powerful army, may back the PPP, analysts said.

velloor@sph.com.sg