In country's political hub Lahore, an angry crowd gathers at a polling station, claiming they have been robbed of their votes and vowing mass street protests if Monday's elections are rigged.
Waving the identification cards which they need to vote, dozens of supporters of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) told AFP their names were missing from the electoral list.
"I have been casting my vote every time, but this time I was deprived of my vote," said Jamila Begum, 60, as people milled around outside the University of Engineering and Technology shouting similar complaints.
"We will certainly and surely be on the roads against the government if there is massive rigging... will take off our shirts and protest in the streets," said labourer and PPP supporter Malik Booda, 65.
Opinion polls suggest that if elections are free and fair, the PPP would likely get the most support, while the party backing President Pervez Musharraf is trailing in third place behind former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).
Musharraf has vowed the polls will be free and fair, but Sharif on Monday accused the party backing the president of vote rigging. Sharif and PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower, have said they will call for protests if fraud denies their parties victory - a call backed by many people on the streets of Lahore.
"The people are voting for PPP or the PML-N and if they (the government) commit rigging, people will be angry. They will be on the streets and I will be joining them," said Mohammad Younas, a worker at Lahore railway station. Traditionally the party that wins Lahore, in populous Punjab province, wins Pakistan.
But there were concerns that many voters would stay at home because of fears of violence and general disillusionment with politics. Presiding officers at three Lahore polling stations estimated turnout at about 20 percent.
"I am poor and downtrodden, and most of the candidates belong to the rich class," said Syad Ahsan Jafri, 40, who did not intend to vote. "They don't come into power to serve the people or for the good of poor people." At Queen Mary College in central Lahore, polling agents and gun-toting police greatly outnumbered voters after polls opened.
Tensions were high after five people including a PML-N provincial assembly candidate were shot dead in the city on the eve of the election. "I want to vote and get it over and done with in case of any incidents. Everybody is worried," said Riffat Hassan, a 42-year-old government employee.
Back at the University of Engineering and Technology, PPP supporters claimed that about 700 voters there had been deprived of their votes - allegations dismissed by polling officer Salim Ahmad.
"Many voters have mistakenly visited our polling station whereas they are supposed to visit the right polling station," he said. But many of the PPP supporters were determined to take their fight onto country's streets if need be. "We will protest," vowed 50-year-old Aslam, who only gave one name.
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