ISLAMABAD—A suicide car bomb outside a Pakistani election candidate's office killed 37 people in the violent northwest on Saturday, the last day of campaigning for an election meant to complete a transition to civilian rule.
Separately, police in the south of the country said they had foiled another attack planned for polling day on Monday.
Campaigning for the elections to a new parliament and provincial assemblies has been overshadowed by security fears, especially since former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed 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 Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally who stepped down as army chief in November, if voters elect a parliament hostile to him.
Voting was postponed from January 8 after Bhutto's assassination, which raised fears about the nuclear-armed country's stability.
Saturday's bomb attack took place in the town of Parachinar in the Kurram region on the Afghan border which has seen bloody sectarian clashes between majority Sunni Muslim militants and minority Shi'ites in recent months.
Supporters of a candidate backed by Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) were going into his office after a rally.
"The car was full of explosives and it was rammed into the crowd as they were entering my office," the candidate, Riaz Hussain Shah, told Reuters. He said he was not there at the time.
The Interior Ministry said 37 people were killed and more than 90 wounded in the blast.
In another suspected suicide attack in the northwest, two civilians were killed and four soldiers wounded in the Swat valley, a military official said.
The northwest has been hit by a surge of violence since July, but attacks have taken place in major cities across Pakistan and there are fears of more.
Police in the southern city of Hyderabad said they had arrested three suspected suicide bombers believed to be planning 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's bloodiest election campaigns has unnerved politicians and voters, and turnout on Monday could be low despite the deployment of more than 80,000 troops.
The United States wanted to see an election in which all the parties can compete fairly, a U.S. spokesman said.
"Violence is not the answer, and we know this latest attack will not stop the people of Pakistan from voting," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
Other big worries for Pakistanis are rising prices and shortages of basic commodities such as flour, and ever more frequent 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 the increasingly unpopular Musharraf's efforts to stay in power.
Two-time prime minister Bhutto had been hoping to win and her party is expected to reap a sympathy vote.
But with none of the main parties—the PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League that backs Musharraf, and the party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif—expected to secure a majority, a coalition between two of the three is likely.
Opposition parties say Musharraf's allies have been engaged in widespread pre-poll rigging.
Sharif and Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who is leading her party into the vote, met in Lahore on Saturday and warned of trouble if they were robbed of victory.
"If the opposition is deprived of its rightful place in the elections, I think that ... will throw the country into a very chaotic situation," Sharif told a news conference.
Zardari told reporters he expected to win but he doubted the vote would be fair. "If they want to rig the election, that we will not take sitting down," he said.
Musharraf rejects complaints of rigging and says procedures have been refined to prevent cheating. He said on Saturday the vote would be fair and peaceful and he hoped for a stable government able to fight terrorism and ensure economic growth.
Nearly 81 million people, about half the population, are registered to vote. Several hundred foreign observers will be monitoring but they have not been allowed to conduct exit polls.
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