Opposition leading in Pakistan
Published 10:47 pm Monday, February 18, 2008
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Opposition parties appeared to be faring well in unofficial early returns, private television stations reported early Tuesday, after a nationwide vote shadowed by security fears.
The outcome of Pakistan’s first general election in five years could badly erode the standing of President Pervez Musharraf, whose popularity has plunged in the past year, and shape the terms of the battle with the Taliban and al-Qaida that Musharraf took up at U.S. behest.
Definitive results could take one or two days, but preliminary trends appeared to be bad news for the party allied with Musharraf. Unofficial results suggested that two of the president’s closest allies were headed to defeat in what had been considered bellwether races.
One was former Cabinet minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed, who conceded in his district in Rawalpindi, outside the capital. The party president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, also appeared to have lost his seat.
Reports suggested that turnout had hit a historic low, about 35 percent, according to Sarwar Bari of the nonprofit Free and Fair Elections Network. The low turnout was thought to increase the likelihood that no party would score a clear triumph.
Results for regional assemblies were shaping up to be more definitive.
In a striking turnaround, an alliance of religious parties appeared to have lost control of the volatile North-West Frontier province, a flashpoint for fighting between government forces and Islamic militants.
Scattered election-related violence killed at least 24 people and injured scores of others, but the polls closed without a major attack.
The campaign had been scarred by a series of suicide bombings, including the attack that killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Dec. 27.
Public-opinion surveys taken before the election suggested Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party would win the largest share of votes, followed by the party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, with the Musharraf-allied ruling party trailing.
Despite fears of violence, a slow and steady procession of voters trekked to polling stations. Tribal elders in turbans, urban sophisticates in designer sunglasses and laborers wearing dusty sandals emerged from polling stations with ink-stained thumbs and, in many cases, smiles.
“My vote is a message to Musharraf — that he should go,” college student Adil Javed said.
The president, speaking to state television, said he would give “full cooperation” to whichever party wins. But an opposition-dominated parliament could move to impeach him or to invalidate his controversial election to another term by lawmakers in late 2007.
Islamic militants distributed pamphlets saying religious precepts forbade women to vote, and many, particularly in religiously conservative areas, stayed home. Nonetheless, localities in some of the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan allowed women to cast votes for the first time.
Not only women were affected by the intimidation; some entire clans decided to stay away.
“For me, life is more important than a vote,” said Akbar Khan, a supporter of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party in the provincial capital of Peshawar. “Our family has decided that nobody will cast a vote.”
