On the eve of the parliamentary polls in Pakistan, the Bush administration has said it is not willing to prejudge the exercise and the people there 'should have a reasonable degree of assurance that their overall will is reflected in the results'.

"We would say about this election what we would say about virtually any other election around the globe, and that is you want to see the candidates have access to media. You want to see people be able to freely express themselves in a peaceful manner, free from threat of violence or intimidation," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said
in a statement ahead of the February 18 polls in Pakistan.

He said the people should be able to assemble peacefully and "there should be a set of procedures surrounding election day which the Pakistani people can have confidence that their ballot will, in fact, be faithfully reflected as part of the results of the election."

"And, of course, we are all hoping that the electoral process can play out in a way that is free from violence. Nobody wants to see that violence... We have observers out on the ground. We have Embassy observers that will be fanning out to various locations throughout the country," he said.

McCormack expressed confidence that although relatively in small number, the Americans in the observation mission will be able to see what is taking place. Aside from international observers, some lawmakers, including Democrat Senator John Kerry, will be in Pakistan for the event.

"I don't want to prejudge the outcome of an election. We'll see what happens on election day. We'll, of course, have some of our own resources that will feed into making that judgment. We'll be talking to others who are on the ground there and able to observe what occurs," McCormack said.

The spokesman did not want to elaborate on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's hope that moderate voices would be represented in the new government in Pakistan.

"I don't want to go much further than what she said, because I don't want to in any way lend -- give the perception at all that we are trying to influence the composition of the future Pakistani government beyond encouraging moderate forces within the Pakistani political system to bond together, work together ...and put it back on the pathway to democratic rule" he said.

McCormack said, prior to former Premier Benazir Bhutto's assassination on December 27 last year, the US was encouraging her and President Pervez Musharraf [Images] to work together. "I think that we would certainly continue to urge that, as well as all other moderate voices within the Pakistani political system, to work together for a better future for Pakistan."

Asked to comment on a reported assertion in Pakistan that Monday's elections will be massively rigged, the State department Spokesman said that Washington has talked to the Pakistani officials and these are elections in which the people need to have confidence.

"The Pakistani people should have a reasonable degree of assurance that their ballot will, in fact, be reflected in the results and that the overall will of the Pakistani people is reflected in these results... there have been in the past irregularities within the Pakistani electoral process."

"One would hope that they can improve upon past performance in a sort of steadily increasing trend line. That is certainly our hope for all elections around the world in developing democracies. You hope that one election is a little bit better than the next. We'll see. We'll see what the results of this election yield," McCormack said.