Musharraf confident of referendum win

Initial results from a controversial referendum to extend military President Pervez Musharraf's rule are expected to start trickling in during the course of the night with Musharraf, voting just after midday, saying he was "very confident" of a victory that would grant him five more years in power.

The government described the turnout as "unprecedented", and said it would not be surprised if it topped 30 per cent amid persistent reports of falsifying votes.

The main opposition party put turnout at five per cent, and said Musharraf had lost all legitimacy and should step down.

Local government leaders elected in non-party polls held by the military government last year and workers of pro-Musharraf fringe political parties were seen coaxing and guiding people to police-guarded polling stations.

Ahead of the vote the government reduced the minimum voting age to 18 from 21 and drastically relaxed identification procedures to make the exercise easier.

The whole country having been declared a single constituency, people could vote anywhere and there were no electoral rolls or polling agents. Area notables monitored the voting, according to the election commission.

"These factors set the stage for ballot stuffing, multiple vote casting and other irregularities," an opposition spokesman said.

Several people here and in Rawalpindi said they cast vote at more than one polling station. Thinking herself unobserved, a polling officer quietly stamped ballot papers with a "yes" vote, falsifying votes in a controversial referendum to extend Musharraf's rule.

Challenged by a Reuters team, the presiding officer at a government college for women in Rawalpindi said she had been given no choice by her superiors.

"I have been told by the principal to complete 500 votes at my booth," she told Reuters, explaining that only 150 people had cast their votes.

"What can we do?" she asked, clearly distressed and explaining she had been put under huge pressure. "We are government servants and we have to do our job." Evidence emerged yesterday that the machinery of state was being used to bolster support for Musharraf and to raise the turnout.

Journalists saw a police inspector open several ballot papers at one polling station in Rawalpindi to see which way people had voted, and he also brushed aside polling agents' objections when one man turned up to vote without an identity card.

There had also been fears Musharraf supporters would vote more than once, especially as there is no electoral list and many polling booths were not demanding identification.

In Lahore, a group of around a dozen people, each with both thumbs marked with indelible ink indicating they had already voted twice, turned up at one polling station to try to vote a third time, but were refused permission.

At one polling station in Peshawar indelible ink was not being used and a local councillor was openly instructing people to vote "yes".

The government denied putting pressure on its employees. "If you force me to go and vote, you cannot force me to say 'yes'," information secretary Anwar Mahmood told Reuters. "If you force me, I will go and vote 'no'."

But some government employees said they had little choice.

There was jubilation in the government camp yesterday with the state-owned television eulogising the people for their interest in participating in the referendum, which they described as an issue of vital national importance.

The feeling was articulated further by a statement from Punjab Governor Khalid Maqbool who was happy at the turnout of voters in his province.

"I toured a number of areas and I found great enthusiasm among the public. People were coming to polling stations in large numbers. The exact figures will be known later, but I can say after my initial assessment that the people have voted for the president's policies".

Two of Musharraf's principal backers, former Air Force chief Air Marshal Asghar Khan, Tehrik-e-Insaaf chief Imran Khan and former minister Omar Asghar Khan voted in favour of the president.