Pakistan to delay vote by at least four weeks: officials
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan will delay parliamentary elections by at least four weeks after a wave of violence triggered by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, senior government officials told AFP on Monday.
The election commission said it would make its announcement on Tuesday after assessing the security situation in the country, which has seen previous elections marred by bloodshed and allegations of widespread vote-rigging.
The January 8 vote was intended to be the final step in completing the transition to civilian-led democracy under President Pervez Musharraf, a close ally of the United States, which is pushing for "free and fair" elections.
Opposition parties including that of Bhutto, who was killed at a campaign rally on Thursday, have sharply criticised Musharraf over her death and gone back and forth on whether they would accept a postponement.
"We will make an announcement on Tuesday morning," election commission spokesman Kanwar Dilshad told AFP. He declined to give the length of the delay, which was confirmed by three senior officials.
A cabinet official said it would be at least a month, after election offices were ransacked and voter lists burnt in the wave of unrest that shook Pakistan following Bhutto's killing.
"Certainly it will be pushed back for at least four weeks if not more," the official said.
Separately, a government official told AFP: "It is out of the question that the elections will be held on January 8 because of the widespread unrest that has directly affected election staff and vote preparations."
An official on the election commission, which held an emergency meeting on Monday in the capital Islamabad, said: "No doubt, the elections are going to be delayed."
The commission has responsibility for supervising the elections. But opposition parties have alleged it is biased in favour of Musharraf, whose popularity has plummeted in the past year.
The opposition boycotted the vote in October when Musharraf was controversially re-elected as president, and a parliament opposed to him could stage a no-confidence vote or otherwise undermine his legitimacy.
Public anger has mounted since the interior ministry on Friday denied that Bhutto's attacker, clearly seen in videos firing a gun at her from close range, had hit her. It instead said she died banging her head on her car's sunroof.
Bhutto's party, which on Sunday named her teenaged son Bilawal to take over as chairman, has demanded a UN probe into her death -- something a senior government official said was out of the question.
The assassination of Bhutto, a pro-Western politician whose family dynasty has a huge popular following, plunged the nation into turmoil that left at least 58 people dead and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.
Three days of national mourning ended Monday, and life slowly returned to normal as petrol stations, banks, pharmacies and restaurants re-opened, providing relief for tens of millions of Pakistanis.
But the world's only nuclear-armed Islamic nation still continued to feel the aftershocks from Bhutto's murder.
The Karachi Stock Exchange dropped 4.7 percent, one of the biggest one-day drops in its history.
And thousands of revellers keen to welcome in the New Year with beach parties in Karachi had their plans ruined on Monday when police ordered them to stay away. However, two people were killed and 12 injured as party-goers fired their guns in the air in the streets to see in the New Year, police and doctors told AFP Tuesday.
A teenager was confirmed dead and four injured at Karachi's Civil Hospital, a medic, said, while a man in his 20s was killed in another part of the city, police confirmed. Eight others were taken to hospitals in other parts of the city, added local medics.
After months of political turmoil that began in March, when Musharraf suspended the chief justice of the Supreme Court, it was unclear how the parties would react to a postponement of the vote.
Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who was named co-chair of the party along with his son, said Monday that he thought the vote should go ahead on time. He told CNN news channel that "democracy was the best vengeance" against terrorism.
He added: "There can be elections in Afghanistan when there is an Al-Qaeda movement. Why can't there be elections in Pakistan and on time?"
