Elections Look Set to Be Delayed By Several Weeks in Pakistan

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 1, 2008 | ZAHID HUSSAIN

[gondramB]

ISLAMABAD -- Amid continuing political turmoil, Pakistan's government appears set to postpone crucial national parliamentary elections originally scheduled for next week -- raising fears of a violent reaction from the supporters of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

A Pakistani election official said Tuesday "it looks impossible" for the country to hold elections as scheduled on Jan. 8 in the wake of the violence that followed the assassination of Ms. Bhutto on Dec. 27. However, a final decision would not be made until Wednesday, after the commission consulted all the political parties, commission spokesman Kanwar Dilshad said.

Despite strong international pressure to hold the poll as scheduled, Mr. Dilshad said that the reports from provincial governments and election commissioners indicate that "the law and order situation is not conducive for the elections to be held on Jan. 8."

[gondramB]

I almost put this in breaking news - it could be the start of massive riots and result in martial law.. but its not definite and it could be there is a legitimate reason to postpone elections... We'll see.

[sukhoi-30mki]

Since both main opposition parties-the PPP & the PML-N have agreed to participate & that to,in likely partnership would mean that they will almost certainly sweep the polls(if it were free).The only folks who are calling for postponment now are the Pro-Musharraf PML-Q(Quaid-E-Azam) formed after Musharraf came to power.They fear a rout.

[gondramB]

Agreed. That makes me wonder if this is intended as the first step in not having elections.

And maybe this should have been breaking news. A story almost never generates 3,000 articles in such a short time

Google news search for delayed elections

[sukhoi-30mki]

Who knows.I still think it makes very little sense for Musharraf/the Army to have her killed & the elections postponed.But their actions of the past few days have only led to more fingers being pointed at them.

[gondramB]

>>Who knows.I still think it makes very little sense for Musharraf/the Army to have her killed & the elections postponed.But their actions of the past few days have only led to more fingers being pointed at them.<<

In the short run it certainly seems to make things worse for the government, not better. But there are breaking stories out of India and France that Bhutto was hours from delivering "proof" that Pakistani intelligence and electoral officials were planning to rig polls.

google news international -proof of vote rigging

[gondramB]

Response: Polls must be held on Jan 8: Sharif

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif talks fondly about his one-time arch rival and bitter critic Benazir Bhutto, reserves his wrath for President Pervez Musharraf and believes firmly that a conspiracy is afoot to defer the January 8 polls to rig them at a later date to save the pro-army Muslim League (Quaid) from a near-total rout.

“Musharraf has brought the situation to a point where there is total breakdown of law and order from Peshawar to Karachi. They will promote violence and then use it as an excuse for getting elections postponed,” alleged Sharif. “We are determined to fight all conspiracies to subvert democracy; we’ll rid Pakistan of Musharraf’s illegal control of institutions.”

[gondramB]

CNN is reporting it as confirmed that the elections are delayed to February 18.

On what I suppose is a positive note they said the government is considering asking Scotland Yard for help investigating Bhutto’s death.