Taxila, Pakistan ? Sitting in a grimy shop churning out traditional rope beds, Amjad Charpay says he will vote today in the first elections since the military seized power in Pakistan in 1999. But his expectations are low.

“People are not interested. No one in the past has done anything for anyone, but when they send the transportation to take us (to the polls) we’ll go. Why not?”

Nearly 72 million Pakistanis are eligible to vote in the general elections for parliament and provincial assemblies, but Information Minister Nisar Memon said Wednesday he expected about 40 percent would turn out. In the last election, held in 1997, turnout was 38 percent.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf went on television Wednesday to urge Pakistanis to vote, calling the election a crucial first step toward returning the nation to democracy.

He said he wanted to ensure an eventual and successful transfer of power.

“I have promised that I will establish real sustainable democracy and this will be done,” Musharraf said. “The establishment of a durable democracy is vital to achieve the real results of our reforms.”

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, among other critics, says Musharraf has stage-managed the elections to ensure the military has more power when polls close Thursday.

In recent weeks, Musharraf amended the constitution to solidify his hold on power. He gave himself the authority to dismiss the elected prime minister and Parliament, passed laws that restricted who could run, and established a military-dominated National Security Council to approve national policy decisions.

Poll workers carry a bag of election materials from the election office in Lahore, Pakistan. Voters will go to the polls today for parliamentary elections.

He sharply curtailed campaigning and banned political rallies until just 30 days before the elections.

The two major political leaders, former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, are both on the sidelines. Bhutto has been disqualified on charges of corruption, and lives in self-imposed exile. Sharif was exiled for 10 years and is in Saudi Arabia. Musharraf handed out the punishment after the courts found Sharif guilty of kidnapping and terrorism.

Musharraf defends his reforms as protection against a return of corrupt and incompetent politicians. But several of the leading candidates running on the ticket of the pro-government party, called the Qaid-e-Azam faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, are tainted by graft allegations.

“The military’s alliance with some of Pakistan’s most corrupt politicians has raised serious questions over President Musharraf’s pledge to fight corruption,” said the highly regarded monthly magazine, Newsline.

Musharraf has promised to stamp out religious extremism but has allowed the leader of an outlawed militant Sunni Muslim group to run in the elections for the National Assembly.

The man, Azim Tariq, heads Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, or Guardians of the Friends of the Prophet, which has been implicated in scores of vicious attacks on Shiite Muslims.