Polls have opened amid tight security in Pakistan for delayed parliamentary elections that could result in victory for the party of Benazir Bhutto, the assassinated former prime minister.
Campaigning for the elections has been marred by violence and allegations of vote-rigging.
Though Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, is not in the fray, the elections are crucial for him with the results likely to decide his political future.
Al Jazeera's Tim Friend at a polling station in the city of Rawalpindi said voting had begun slowly on Monday but that the tendency was for Pakistanis to vote later in the day.
Friend said many people were staying away due to fears over security.
Fraud fears
The elections have also been mared by claims of fraud, with opposition parties accusing the government of Musharraf of 'massive pre-poll rigging'.
The vote was originally scheduled for January 8 but was postponed after Bhutto's murder in December.
Her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is expected to emerge as the largest party in the 342-seat National Assembly on the back of a large sympathy vote.
Results are expected to start emerging towards midnight and should begin to become clear late on Tuesday morning.
Most analysts doubt the PPP can win a majority. Who it chooses for coalition partners will be vital to Musharraf.
"We will try and take all friends and foes together," Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari and co-chairman of the PPP, said in a speech on the eve of the vote.
An alliance between the PPP and the other main opposition party, led by Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister, would be the worst scenario for Musharraf.
Sharif is intent on removing Musharraf from power, perhaps through impeachment by parliament.
Analysts say Musharraf is aiming for a coalition between the PPP and the party that backs him, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q).
Farahana Ali, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera that a possible low turnout precipitated by security fears could favour Musharraf but that a grand coalition between the PPP and Sharif would be a disaster for the president.
"However it is worth remembering that political opponents in Pakistan are opportunists and I still think it is too early too predict what Zardari will do should the PPP come out on top," she said.
Key battleground
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reporting from Lahore in Punjab said the province could be a key battleground in the election given that, with a population of 70 million, it represents a sizebale chunk of the legislature.
Hyder said that though voting started slowly, it has since been gradually picking up.
More than half a million security personnel were deployed at polling stations across the country on Monday.
On Saturday a deadly car bomb attack killed 46 people and left at least 100 injured at an election rally in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Voting has been postponed in that area as a result.
PHOTO CAPTION
A voter casts his ballot at a polling station in the Pakistan-Afghan border town of Chaman February 18, 2008.
Al-Jazeera