Opposition Shows Strongly in Early Pakistani Vote Count
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Musharraf appealed for national unity yesterday as early unofficial returns showed the opposition doing well in parliamentary elections aimed at bolstering democracy and calming political strife.
But after fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home, there were worries no clear winner would emerge, resulting in a government too fragmented to rally the nation against Islamic extremists.
Private television stations reported strong showings by the two main opposition parties in early unofficial tallies, a trend conceded by the party of Mr. Musharraf. Final official results were not expected before tomorrow.
Balloting proceeded without major attacks, although the opposition party of an assassinated ex-prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, claimed that 15 of its members had been killed and hundreds injured in scattered violence "deliberately engineered to deter voters."
Officials confirmed 24 deaths in election-related violence over the previous 24 hours, mostly in the country's biggest province of Punjab, the key electoral battleground.
Mr. Musharraf was not on the ballot, but the election was widely seen as a referendum on his eight-year rule — including his alliance with America in the war against terrorist groups that many Pakistanis oppose.
TV reports said two of the president's close political allies — the chairman of the ruling party and the outgoing railways minister — both lost seats in Punjab, which has been a stronghold of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q Party.
"As far as we are concerned, we will be willing to sit on opposition benches if final results prove that we have lost. This is the trend," a party spokesman, Tariq Azeem, said.
Mr. Musharraf's approval ratings have plummeted since his declaration of emergency rule in November and his purge of the judiciary to safeguard his re-election by the previous Parliament a few weeks earlier.
Going into the election, two public opinion surveys predicted Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party would finish first, followed by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q was in third.
An overwhelming victory by the opposition could leave Mr. Musharraf politically weakened at a time when America is pressing him to take more robust action against Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters based in Pakistan's restive northwestern region along the Afghan border.
With his political future in the balance, Mr. 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," Mr. 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 news agency reported unofficial returns gave the first two Parliament seats to Bhutto's party, and partial results carried by private TV networks also suggested a strong performance by Mr. Sharif's opposition party.
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 district reporting.
"I'm very happy, but we have to struggle," Sadiq ul-Farooq, a senior official in Mr. Sharif's party, said. "We face serious problems — the economy, law and order, and then the problem of terrorism, which is 70% because of President Musharraf. He has to go."
The American government, Mr. Musharraf's strongest international backer, was 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," Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat who was one of several American lawmakers monitoring the election, said.
