Islamabad: Pakistanis head to the polls on October 10 for the first general elections since President Pervez Musharraf's 1999 coup, with opinion polls showing a tight race between the main Opposition and a pro-government party.

Voters will choose from 7,054 candidates to elect a National Assembly and four Provincial Assemblies, which were suspended and later disbanded by General Musharraf after he seized power.

Musharraf, the Army chief, promised since his coup to restore the Parliaments and build "genuine democracy", charging that the four civilian governments before him had ruined Pakistan with corruption and misrule.

Musharraf has declared himself President until 2007. He is not contesting the elections. Opposition parties and civil society groups including lawyers and Human Rights activists charge that Constitutional changes and new electoral restrictions introduced by Musharraf are undemocratic and aimed at giving the military a permanent place in government.

Generals have ruled Pakistan for 27 years of its 55-year history, and Musharraf's regime is the country's fourth military dictatorship.

Almost 72 million Pakistanis are eligible to vote. It is not compulsory, and voter turnouts have declined in the past four elections, with only 35.9 per cent casting ballots in the 1997 polls.

At least three public opinion polls show the Opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of banned ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and the 18-month-old pro-government Pakistan Muslim League-Quiad (PML-Q) are equal favourites.

However neither are expected to win a clear majority, and pundits tip frantic horse-trading and coalition-building after the vote.

The PML-Q has said it would call on allies from the pro-government National Alliance and from among the 2,668 independent candidates to clinch the 172 national seats needed for a majority.

The PPP, contesting through its new electoral wing PPP Parliamentarians (PPPP), has said it would form a coalition with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of Nawaz Sharif, the premier deposed by Musharraf.

A survey carried in 'The Nation' daily found 27 per cent support for both PPP and PML-Q. Earlier surveys by Gallup-Pakistan and Oasis International Pakistan also predicted the PPP and PML-Q would be front-runners.