FORMER LEADER CLAIMS VICTORY OVER BHUTTO.

Byline: Associated Press 

Nawaz Sharif - once ousted from the prime minister's job in a corruption scandal - claimed election victory Monday over Benazir Bhutto, who was labeled incompetent and fired from the premiership.

Bhutto's supporters attributed her apparent failed bid for vindication to election fraud. She had vowed to reject the results if she lost.

Independent election observers reported no serious irregularities, although reporters saw scattered incidents where women were forced from the polls in one province. The observers also noted a general apathy, and the 26 percent turnout in parliamentary elections - a record low - reflected widespread despair over the state of Pakistani democracy.

Although Bhutto was charged with corruption and incompetence upon her ouster in November, she was allowed to run against Sharif, whose own term as prime minister was cut short in 1993 by charges of dishonesty.

Only one official result was announced by late Monday, when Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League took the only National Assembly seat for Islamabad, the capital.

Sharif was exuberant, telling supporters in Lahore that reports from poll workers showed his Pakistan Muslim Party winning a majority in the 217-seat National Assembly. This would allow him to form a government without seeking coalition partners.

``It is much better than expected,'' he said.

In her hometown of Larkana, 500 miles south of Islamabad, Bhutto's spokesman Munawar Suhurwardy said Sharif was sweeping Punjab, Sharif's home province and Pakistan's largest. Suhurwardy said Bhutto also was losing ground in Sindh, her home province and traditional power base.

Bhutto is no stranger to misfortune - political or personal. On the walls of her sprawling brick home, images of the dead stare out from giant portraits: father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was toppled by a military dictator and hanged in 1977; his youngest son, Shahnawaz, was poisoned under mysterious circumstances in 1985; and his eldest son, Murtaza, was killed last year in a police attack that many blame on Benazir Bhutto.