Pakistan Counts Vote In Crucial Election
Pakistan's embattled president appealed for unity Monday after parliamentary elections aimed at bolstering democracy and calming political turmoil. But fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home, raising the prospect of no clear winner and a government too fragmented to rally the nation against Islamic extremism.
Counting began soon after the polls closed and results started trickling in late Monday. But final official returns were not expected before Wednesday. Pakistani private television stations reported strong showings by the two main opposition parties in early unofficial tallies.
Balloting proceeded without major attacks, although the opposition party of assassinated ex-prime minister Benzir Bhutto claimed 15 of its members were killed and hundreds injured in scattered violence "deliberately engineered to deter voters."
Officials confirmed 24 people were killed from Sunday night in election-related violence, mostly in the country's biggest province of Punjab, the key electoral battleground.
President Pervez Musharraf was not on the ballot, but the election was widely seen as a referendum on his eight-year rule -- including his alliance with the United States in the war on terrorism that many Pakistanis oppose.
Musharraf's approval ratings have plummeted since last year's declaration of emergency rule and his purging of the judiciary to safeguard his October re-election.
Going into the election, two public opinion surveys predicted that Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party would finish first, followed by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q was seen trailing in third.
"There is no question that, in any free and fair election, the secular democratic parties led by the PPP would win a sweeping two-thirds victory. Two-thirds victory, of course, could be terribly important because two-thirds can bring down… impeach a president," said Siegel, who collaborated on a book by Bhutto which was published posthumously.
An overwhelming victory by the opposition could leave Musharraf politically weakened at a time when the United States is pressing him to take more robust action against al Qaeda and Taliban militias operating in Pakistan.
With his political future in the balance, Musharraf pledged to work with the new government regardless of which party wins.
"I will give them full cooperation as president, whatever is my role," Musharraf said after casting his ballot in Rawalpindi. "Confrontationist policies ... should end and we should come into conciliatory politics in the interest of Pakistan. The situation demands this."
The state Associated Press of Pakistan news agency reported unofficial returns as awarding the first two seats to Bhutto's party, and partial results carried by private TV networks also suggested a strong performance by Sharif's opposition party.
"I'm very happy but we have to struggle," said Sadiq ul-Farooq, a senior official in Sharif's party. "We face serious problems -- the economy, law and order and then the problem of terrorism which is 70 percent because of President Musharraf. He has to go."
In the north, prominent pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazl-ur Rehman was trailing far behind his rival from Bhutto's party with more than half the precincts in their constituency reporting.
The United States, Musharraf's strongest international backer, had been anxious for a credible election to shore up democratic forces at a time of mounting concern over political unrest in this nuclear-armed nation and a growing al Qaeda and Taliban presence in the northwest.
"Every single vote must be counted fairly, and the numbers must be transmitted so decisions can be made," U.S. Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, one of several American lawmakers who monitored the voting.
Lee said an "effective government for the people of Pakistan" was America's "great concern."
Despite the stakes, it appeared that most of the country's 81 million voters stayed home -- either out of fear of extremist attack or lack of enthusiasm for the candidates, many of whom waged lackluster campaigns.
Sarwar Bari of the nonprofit Free and Fair Elections Network said reports from his group's 20,000 election observers indicated voter turnout was about 35 percent. That would be the same as in the 1997 election -- the lowest in Pakistan's history.
Ayaz Baig, the election commissioner in Pakistan's most populous province, Punjab, estimated turnout there at 30 percent to 40 percent -- slightly lower than in the 2002 elections. In Baluchistan and Sindh provinces, turnout was estimated at about 35 percent, election officials said.
In Lahore, 2,740 voters were registered at two polling stations in a primary school in an upper middle class district. Less than two hours before the polls closed, only 760 people — or 28 percent — had cast ballots.
Bhutto's party had hoped to ride a public wave of sympathy after the former prime minister was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack Dec. 27 in Rawalpindi. Her death and the nationwide riots that followed prompted authorities to postpone the balloting for six weeks.
But Bhutto's assassination forced candidates to curtail public rallies due to security concerns, and the death of the country's most charismatic figure appeared to drain much of the excitement from the campaign.
"I was already disillusioned with politics and it only deepened after the death of Ms. Bhutto," said housewife Rifat Ashraf.
With turnout so low, it was unclear whether the ruling party machinery had been more successful in getting its supporters to the polls, especially in Punjab which is its political base.
Opposition officials warned the government against trying to manipulate the results during the laborious count. They warned of street protests if the count is rigged.
"People came out today and they voted for us. But we are hearing that their votes will be stolen after darkness, and we will not tolerate it," opposition politician Shahbaz Sharif said on Geo television.
Opposition parties and analysts claim that local authorities have used state resources to back ruling party candidates -- claims that have been denied by the government, which has promised a free and fair vote.
Police arrested an election official after 600 ballot papers went missing from a polling station in the southern city of Shikarpur, said police official Ali Mohammed Shahni.
While fears of attack warded off some voters, sympathy for Bhutto and disaffection over rising food prices compelled others to take the risk and go to the polls.
"My vote is for the PPP," said Munir Ahmed Tariq, a retired police officer in Nawab Shah. "If there is rigging this time, there will be a severe reaction. This is a sentiment of this nation."
In the remote border region of Bajur -- a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, hundreds of Pashtun tribesmen turned out to vote at a polling set up inside a government college, and dismissed the threat of attack.
"We are not afraid of the situation. Death comes only once," said farmer Amanat Shah. A nearby, segregated polling station for women, was empty -- a reflection of conservative attitudes in Pakistan's tribal belt.