ISLAMABAD — Counting began yesterday after an election in Pakistan that was far less violent than feared. According to reports, 11 people have been killed — seven of them in Punjab province — and 70 wounded in election violence. Polling stations closed their doors at 5 p.m. (1200 GMT). Results have started emerging and trends should be clear today.
The vote for a new National Assembly and provincial assemblies was to have been held early last month, but was delayed because of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. The death of Benazir, the most progressive, Western-friendly politician in a Muslim nation rife with anti-American sentiment, raised concern about stability in the nuclear-armed state. More than 450 people have died in militant-related violence this year. Fear of more violence kept many Pakistanis away from the polls, despite 80,000 troops backing up police.
In Benazir’s home province of Sindh, Home Secretary Arif Ali Khan said two people had been killed and 50 wounded in poll-related incidents. “This is almost insignificant,” said Khan, while expressing sorrow over the deaths.
Election official Mohammad Farooq estimated turnout at 35 percent at his polling station in Rawalpindi. “Considering the security circumstances, that’s good,” he said as the polls closed.
President Pervez Musharraf, who came to power in a coup in 1999, called for reconciliation after casting his vote in Rawalpindi. “I will support the party that will get electoral majority,” he told mediamen. Musharraf added that the politics of accommodation and conciliation needs to be promoted rather than the politics of confrontation.
Under the Shadow of Fear
Security concerns affect large parts of Pakistan. A suicide attack on Benazir’s party supporters killed 47 people in a northwestern town on Saturday. “You see suicide bombings everywhere and you can see the empty streets on polling day,” said civil servant Mohammad Ijaz, voting in the city of Lahore where three people were killed in shootings late on Sunday.
Militants set off bombs at four polling stations in the Northwest, three in the Swat Valley, before polls opened, but no one was injured. Army helicopters later attacked suspected militant hideouts in Swat, residents said. Another worry was vote rigging, that could prompt opposition parties to reject the result and call for street protests, raising concern over how the army would react.
A sympathy vote was expected to help Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) become the largest party in the 342-seat National Assembly.
Most analysts doubted the PPP could win a majority. If not, its choices for coalition partners would be vital to Musharraf. Benazir’s widower Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the PPP, issued a conciliatory call for unity on the eve of the vote. He did not speak to reporters as he voted in Sindh.
The leader of the other main opposition party, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, made a victory sign as he voted in Lahore. An alliance between the PPP and Sharif is what Musharraf dreads as Sharif is intent on bringing him down, perhaps through impeachment. Analysts say Musharraf wants a coalition between the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League that backs him.
— With input from agencies
