Pakistan Opposition set for crushing win in polls

ISLAMABAD: Opposition parties dealt a crushing electoral blow to allies of President Pervez Musharraf, a private TV network reported on Tuesday, winning enough seats to form a new government that could threaten the eight-year rule of America's close ally in the war on terror. (Watch: Blow for Musharraf, rivals lead) The party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was in the lead in Monday's parliamentary vote, with ex-premier Nawaz Sharif, who was toppled in Musharraf's 1999 coup and has emerged as his fiercest critic, running a close second. The private Geo TV network said the two parties had so far won 139 seats, more than half of the 272-seat National Assembly. The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q party was trailing a distant third with 33 seats. A ream of party stalwarts and former Cabinet ministers lost in their constituencies. "All the King's men, gone!" proclaimed a banner headline in the Daily Times. "Heavyweights knocked out," read Dawn newspaper. Final results are not expected before Tuesday evening, but the election's outcome appeared to be a stinging public verdict on Musharraf, whose popularity plummeted following decisions late last year to impose emergency rule, purge the judiciary, jail political opponents and curtail press freedoms. With the support of smaller groups and independent candidates, the opposition could gain a two-thirds majority in parliament needed to impeach the president, who also angered many Pakistanis by allying the country with Washington in 2001 to fight Al-Qaida and the Taliban after the September 11 attacks. The PML-Q said it accepted the results, but party president Pervaiz Elahi stopped short of conceding defeat before the returns were more complete. "We happily accept the verdict of the people," Elahi, the outgoing chief minister of Punjab province, told Geo TV on Tuesday. "If our opponents had faced the same situation at a time when 60 per cent of the results are still to come, they might have started talking about rigging, and we are not doing it ... We have been sitting on opposition benches in the past, and we can do it now as well." He said the PML-Q had elected Musharraf for five years. "We respect him, and we are still with him," he said. Although fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home on Monday, the elections for national and provincial assemblies were a major step toward democracy in Pakistan, which has been under military for the past eight years under Musharraf and for over half of its 60-year history. A win by the opposition is likely to restore the public's faith in the political process and quell fears that the results would be rigged in favour of the pro-Musharraf forces. About 18 hours after vote-counting began, Geo TV said unofficial tallies from 229 of the 268 National Assembly seats being contested showed Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party with 33.1 per cent and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party with 27.5 per cent. The pro-Musharraf PML-Q was third with 14.4 per cent. Contests in four assembly seats have been delayed for various reasons, including the death of candidates during the campaign.