LAHORE, Oct 9: Of about five dozen political parties taking part in Thursday’s general elections, some important ones have refused to commit at this stage whether they will accept the results while some others have threatened to launch a movement, more violent than that of 1977, in case the government rigs the polls.

The PML(QA) and the PPP are the major contenders for power, both claiming that they will be in a position to form governments at the centre and in provinces.

The PML(N), which is now willing to form a coalition with the PPP, thinks that it can get between 40 and 45 per cent of the NA seats on which it has put up its candidates in case the regime does not involve in rigging on the polling day.

The PML(QA) President, Mian Mohammad Azhar, told Dawn on Wednesday that his party was decidedly in a better position as compared to its rivals and it would win most of the seats in the NA and the provincial legislatures. However, he did not say the number of seats the ‘king’s party’, as the opponents brand it, would win.

Mian Azhar firmly believed that his party would rule the country during the next five years without having to depend upon support of any other party.

Rejecting the allegations of pre-poll rigging levelled by various opposition parties, Mian Azhar said it had become a fashion that any party losing the electoral bout disputed the fairness of the polls. This had been a practice in the past and this was happening this time, he regretted.

About the reported surveys which show the PPP was ahead of the PML(QA), Mian Azhar said such exercises did not carry much weight as they reflected the opinion of only a few thousand people. Still, he said, these surveys had admitted that the PML(QA) was a strong party.

He claimed that he would win nine to 10 of the 13 NA seats in Lahore and the corresponding provincial seats.

He was sure that he would be victorious on both the NA seats he was contesting.

PPP’s acting secretary-general Mian Raza Rabbani said despite the ‘massive’ pre-poll rigging carried out by the regime, his party would emerge as the single largest party, capable of forming its government in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore provided the regime did not involve in manipulations on the polling day.

Answering to a question, he said: “It’s premature to say at this stage whether the PPP will accept the election results. We’ll have to see how the process of elections proceeds on Thursday. We’ll also have to see transparency in the voting process,  counting of votes and then the  tabulation  and consolidation of election results.”

The PPP leader demanded that there should be no interference in the polling process and no switching of ballot boxes. He said official results should be announced by the returning officers immediately  after  the polling rather  than  their  being consolidated  and announced after a period of two to five days, as being indicated by the regime.

He also demanded that bogus ID cards should not be used in the polling.

The PML(N) chairman, Raja Zafarul Haq, said his party had put up 169 NA candidates across the country and in case of free polls the party would win between 40 and 45 per cent of the seats. The party would give still a better performance in the Punjab, he said.

Raja said Gen Musharraf’s assertion that ‘those determined to undo his constitutional amendments should first see whether they reached parliament’ clearly meant that such people would not be allowed to win, no matter how big their popular support be. Still, he said, his party had not lost the hope for free and fair elections on Thursday.