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Voting ends in crucial election
Pakistanis voted for a new parliament yesterday in a key step toward democracy after eight years of military rule under President Pervez Musharraf, whose political future hung in the balance. But fear of militant attacks and apathy after a lackluster campaign appeared to keep turnout low.
?Polling has come to an end. It was orderly and peaceful in most parts,? Election Commission Secretary Kanwar Dilshad said.
Musharraf, meanwhile, promised to work with the new government regardless of who won the vote, after a year of turmoil that has seen an explosion in Taliban militancy and growing public disaffection with Pakistan?s support of the US-led war on terror.
?I will say from my side, whichever political party will win, whoever will become prime minister and chief ministers, congratulation to them on my behalf. And I will give them full cooperation as president whatever is my role,? the president told state television.
<B>Two days for results</B>
Some 81 million Pakistanis were eligible to vote for new national and provincial assemblies. Polls closed at 5 p.m. (1200 GMT), although voters standing in line were permitted to cast ballots. Officials said it could take another two days for complete results
Shuffling into a women?s polling station beneath a flowing burka, Saima Zahoor says she hopes for divine protection from the wave of violence that has marred Pakistan?s elections.
The housewife was one of only a few to vote in the two hours after polls opened in the northwestern city of Peshawar, close to the Afghan border where Al-Qaida and Taliban militants have launched a string of suicide bombings.
?I am scared because of all the bombings but I am sure Allah will protect me and all the people voting today,? Zahoor said as she cast her ballot at Government Girls? High School Number 2.
Speaking from beneath her all-covering Islamic garment, she said that there were particular fears militants would target women?s polling stations ?because of the opposition in our society for women to go out and vote.?
Men and women vote at separate locations throughout Pakistan, an Islamic republic.
No queues at polling stations</B>
Pakistan?s election campaign has unfolded amid heightened public fears ever since the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, the Muslim world?s first female prime minister, at a party rally in December.
The government says it has deployed 81,000 troops to secure voting following a series of subsequent bombings, including one targeting Bhutto supporters in a northwestern tribal town on Saturday that killed 47 people.
There were no queues at most of the polling stations in Peshawar. No troops could be seen but about a dozen police were on guard at each polling station.
?My family members are really angry with me because I left the house against their advice. They told me not to go and vote because of the security situation,? elderly voter Alam Gul said.
?The turnout is very low so far,? electoral official Taj Mohammed said at one station.
Gul Meena, a woman in her 60s, said she was brought to vote by the party that she supports, the Awami National Party (ANP) ? a secular, ethnic Pashtun nationalist grouping.
Bombers targeted two ANP meetings in the run-up to the polls. ?I want to vote as soon as I can and then go home. I don?t know where and when the bombers will explode themselves. God knows better,? she said.
Across the street, a vendor selling steaming cups of green tea shook his head and said: ?Look, both voters and customers have disappeared.?
Queues were bigger in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, with dozens of people waiting outside one polling station near the public park where Bhutto was slain in a suicide attack.
In the southern port city of Karachi, many polling stations were deserted but there was a bustling atmosphere in the slum neighbourhood of Lyari, a stronghold of Bhutto?s Pakistan People?s Party.
?I have lived a long life and I am not afraid of bomb blasts,? said 60-year-old PPP supporter Sakina Bibi, chanting ?Long Live Bhutto? after she cast her vote.
?I am far less courageous than Bhutto but I would be ready to die to achieve her mission,? the voter said.
Labourer Mohammad Nazir, 45, a father of four, said there were widespread security fears ?but we should defy these attacks, because they are meant to keep us away from the election and we should use our right to vote.?
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<B>Musharraf willing to work with ?everyone?</B>
President Pervez Musharraf, who recently said he would be a ?father figure? to Pakistan?s new prime minister, yesterday voiced his commitment for ?political reconciliation? and willingness to work with ?everyone?.
Musharraf?s remarks came amid the possibility of opposition PPP and PML-N sweeping today?s parliamentary polls.
After casting his vote along with wife Sehba and mother Zarin at a polling station in the garrison city of Rawalpindi near here, Musharraf told reporters ?we would like to work with everyone.?
Recent opinion polls predicted that opposition PPP and PML-N would sweep the elections with the PML-Q or the King?s party which backs Musharraf trailing way behind.
Musharraf said the winner of the polls will form the government. ?I remain committed to the policy of political reconciliation in the larger interest of the country.?
The President had on the eve of the elections told Jemima Khan in an interview published in the British daily ?The Independent? : ?My role as a president is simply the checks and balances, the seatbelts... a sort of father figure to the prime minister, but I won?t have to see him for weeks.?
The interview conducted by the ex-wife of Pakistani politician Imran Khan in Rawalpindi was described as an ?extraordinary encounter?.
During an interaction with a team from the Centre for Media and Democracy that is in the country to monitor the polls, Musharraf had also said political parties would have to decide on a prime ministerial candidate through mutual consultations in the event of a fractured verdict and insisted that he would play no role in this process.
The President said he would not interfere in the process to select a prime minister if none of the parties secured a majority in the next Parliament.
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Women stopped from voting</B>
Voting stopped at women-only polling stations in parts of northwest Pakistan yesterday after elders decided that women should not cast ballots, police and officials said.
Peshawar district mayor Ghulam Ali said voting had to be discontinued in Maryamzai, Budaber and other areas on the outskirts of Peshawar, which is close to the Afghan border where Al-Qaida and Taliban militants are active.
Men and women vote at separate locations throughout Pakistan, an Islamic republic.
?I have reports that elders in the area decided that voting by women is against our culture,? Ali said.
?This is their tradition. We can do nothing.? Chief election commissioner Qazi Farooq, in a televised speech on Sunday, warned that stern action would be taken if people tried to prevent women from casting their votes.
Pakistan has 81 million registered voters, about 36 million of whom are women.
The country?s voters yesterday were casting their ballots in critical parliamentary elections overshadowed by violence and fears of rigging, with the fate of key US ally President Pervez Musharraf hanging in the balance.
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