Some 81 million Pakistanis are eligible to participate in Monday's parliamentary elections in 64 100 polling stations all over the country in a vote that may have fateful consequences for President Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistan which is a nuclear power and a close US ally under Musharraf has descended into political violence after former PM Benazir Bhuto's assassination in December 2007, with some 40 people killed in terrorist attacks over the weekend.

The parliamentary elections are critical for the Pakistani president since if the two main opposition parties receive a two-thirds majority together, or if either one of them does, they could initiate an impeachment procedure against Musharraf. Despite this possibility, he has declared he would not dispute the elections outcome.

The two main opposition parties are the Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, led by former PM Nawaz Sharif.

The president has become increasingly unpopular because of the rising inflation as well as because the US plentiful support for him as Washington hopes for continued Pakistani cooperation against the Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan.

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