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ISLAMABAD : Around 9,000 candidates will contest next month's parliamentary elections in Pakistan, officials said Monday, as the country's main opposition leaders hit the campaign trail.
With the January 8 vote three weeks away, the election commission approved the final candidates list, commission official Khurshid Alam told AFP.
He said more than 3,000 people had either been rejected by the commission or had withdrawn, leaving about 9,000 to contest the 1,070 seats for the federal parliament and four provincial legislatures.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif, due to previous criminal conviction, is one of those rejected.
He and another former premier, Benazir Bhutto, are leading their parties in the election contest against the party backing President Pervez Musharraf. Both parties have alleged that the vote will be rigged against them.
Sharif withdrew his decision to boycott after attempts to convince fellow opposition leader Bhutto and a key religious party to stay out of the vote failed.
On Saturday, Musharraf lifted a controversial six-week state of emergency that included a ban on public rallies and demonstrations.
Bhutto was to address a rally in the southern city of Hyderabad later Monday while Sharif was to address meeting in central Pakistani cities of Multan and Khanewal.
Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless military coup eight years ago, imposed the emergency on November 3, citing a surge in attacks by Islamic militants as well as what he alleged was interference by the judiciary.
Opponents alleged the real reason for the emergency was to provide cover for a purge of anti-Musharraf judges, who could have entertained legal challenges to his controversial re-election in October. - AFP/vm
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