LAHORE, Feb 26: The ruling PML and all opposition parties will be able to gauge the level of their respective political support in NA-127 (Lahore) as their candidates take part in a by-election on the seat on Sunday (today).

Both sides are claiming they have a decisive majority in the constituency.

The PML candidate is Farooq Amjad Mir while the ARD, MMA and Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf are backing PML-N's Naseer Bhutta. A senior PML-N leader says that the Pakistan Awami Tehrik, whose chairman Dr Tahirul Qadri had vacated the seat in protest against Gen Musharraf's policies, is also backing Mr Bhutta.

In the 2002 election, Dr Qadri had polled 24,949 votes. The ruling PML's Aleem Khan had got 20,545 votes, while PML-N's Naseer Bhutta bagged 18,271, PPP's Professor Ijazul Hasan 12,203 and PTI's Dr Osman Malik 2,187 votes.

The situation in the by-election is different as the ruling party is on one side and all other parties are on the other.

Though electoral mathematics supports the opposition candidate because of unity among all parties, the ruling PML's Farooq Amjad Mir has little doubt about his victory. He says the response from the constituency is so overwhelming that he will get elected quite easily.

The ruling party thinks that the two public meetings addressed by Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, and the development schemes announced for the constituency will bring tremendous support for Mr Mir.

However, the PML-N, PPP, MMA and PTI leaders said at a joint news conference here on Saturday that development schemes would be of little help to the ruling party as voters had already decided to vote in favour of the opposition candidate. Mr Bhutta, they claimed, had won the seat and only a formal announcement to the effect remained to be made.

Naseer Bhutta was also confident about his electoral win. PML-N leaders Khwaja Saad Rafiq and Pervaiz Malik, PPP's Naveed Chaudhry, MMA's Liaquat Baloch and PTI's Dr Usman Malik addressed the news conference.

Saad Rafiq alleged that after the failure of the two public meetings, the chief minister had identified some two dozen polling stations whose results would be changed.

To ward off such a possibility, he said, opposition nominees should be allowed to remain with the polling bags until they are collected from polling stations and handed over to the returning officer. The police, he said, could not be trusted as they tend to favour the ruling party.

Also, the PML-N leader demanded that provisional results of every polling station be made available to the opposition within an hour of the close of polling.

The PPP's Naveed Chaudhry, apprehending rigging, demanded that the list of the presiding officers should be announced without delay. Any attempt to rig the by-poll would be frustrated through counter measures, he said, expressing disappointment over the silence of the Election Commission when the government was announcing schemes for the constituency in violation of rules.

MNA Pervaiz Malik said the turnout at the opposition's public meetings had established that Mr Bhutta had won the seat. He warned that the opposition would not let anyone create a law and order situation.

MMA's Liaquat Baloch said the entire constituency backed the opposition's candidate. He said the ruling party would lose the seat, as had recently happened in Malakand where the MMA's nominee trounced his PML rival.