Pakistan to Delay Vote by At Least Four Weeks: Officials
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s elections will be delayed by at least four weeks due to mass unrest after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a cabinet official told AFP on Monday.
Other government and election officials confirmed that the January 8 polls would be postponed.
Bhutto’s party rejected any delay and insisted the government should stick to the schedule, but a spokesman for Nawaz Sharif, another major opposition leader, said a short postponement “would be acceptable.”
The vote is under scrutiny around the world as President Pervez Musharraf pledges to complete the Islamic nation’s transition to civilian-led democracy after eight years of his military rule.
Bhutto’s murder during a campaign rally last Thursday however changed the atmosphere, unleashing a wave of deadly violence.
“Certainly it will be pushed back for at least four weeks if not more,” the cabinet official said.
A government official told AFP separately: “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.”
He said logistics and preparations had been disrupted by unrest in Sindh province, the heartland of the Bhutto family and its supporters, while ballot printing in the country’s biggest city Karachi was behind schedule.
“More than 40 offices of the election commission and its administrative offices have been damaged in Sindh,” the government official said.
The election commission official agreed: “No doubt, the elections are going to be delayed.”
Pakistan has faced international calls to stick to the planned date for the elections since Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack at a rally in the northern city of Rawalpindi.
Her party, which Sunday named her 19-year-old son Bilawal as its new leader alongside her widowed husband Asif Ali Zardari, insisted it wanted the polls held on their original date.
“We are ready for elections and do not want any delay. We demand immediate elections — and on January 8,” senior party official Shah Mahmood Qureshi told AFP.
“The government should stick to the schedule. If the government delays the election, we will call a central executive committee meeting to decide our future course of action,” said Qureshi, a member of that committee.
A delay could spark disagreement over the caretaker government running the country. Officials in Bhutto’s party say they do not trust it to investigate her death properly.
The unrest left at least 38 people dead as protesters torched hundreds of banks, shops, offices, trains and vehicles in a wave of violence that caused millions of dollars in damage, according to government estimates.
Election commission secretary Kanwar Dilshad told reporters earlier that it had asked provincial governments to report on the law and order situation by later Monday.
In addition, officials said, the announcement of the new date could not be made until after consultations with the major parties.
Tensions have eased and life in major cities is now almost back to normal, with shops and banks starting to reopen and cars, taxis and some buses on the streets. Schools remained closed.
Still, the Karachi Stock Exchange fell 4.7 percent in early trading Monday, which dealers said was one of the sharpest drops in memory.
The index, which had closed hours before Bhutto was killed, was down more than 680 points to 14,085.
The appointment of Bhutto’s son, a student at Britain’s Oxford University, extends the family’s grip on the party leadership into a third generation.
But he is politically untested, and analysts believe real power will lie with Zardari — a highly controversial figure mired in corruption allegations over kickbacks during Bhutto’s premiership.
© 2007 Agence France Presse
If anything, Obama should be given points for being the only Democrat candidate who actually come out against supporting a military dictatorship as the cost of ‘national security’ back in August of 2007. He then rightfully and roundly criticized Musharraf and given voice to the need for a ‘democratic ally’ in Pakistan, before it was at all clear that Bhutto would return. Unlike Iraq, Pakistan had a functioning democracy until Musharraf overthrew it. Restore Democracy! Restore the Supreme Court!
“The United States is a democratic government, and democratic governments should work for democratic values across the globe. Pakistan is no exception.”- Pakistan Supreme Court Justice Rana Bhagwandas
www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/world/asia/06pakistan.html
“When I am President, we will wage the war that has to be won, with a comprehensive strategy with five elements: getting out of Iraq and on to the right battlefield in Afghanistan and Pakistan; developing the capabilities and partnerships we need to take out the terrorists and the world’s most deadly weapons; engaging the world to dry up support for terror and extremism; restoring our values; and securing a more resilient homeland. ” - Barack Obama
http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.event&event_id=269510
“We must not, however, repeat the mistakes of Iraq. The solution in Afghanistan is not just military – it is political and economic. As President, I would increase our non-military aid by $1 billion. These resources should fund projects at the local level to impact ordinary Afghans, including the development of alternative livelihoods for poppy farmers. And we must seek better performance from the Afghan government, and support that performance through tough anti-corruption safeguards on aid, and increased international support to develop the rule of law across the country.
Above all, I will send a clear message: we will not repeat the mistake of the past, when we turned our back on Afghanistan following Soviet withdrawal. As 9/11 showed us, the security of Afghanistan and America is shared. And today, that security is most threatened by the al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary in the tribal regions of northwest Pakistan.
Al Qaeda terrorists train, travel, and maintain global communications in this safe-haven. The Taliban pursues a hit and run strategy, striking in Afghanistan, then skulking across the border to safety.
This is the wild frontier of our globalized world. There are wind-swept deserts and cave-dotted mountains. There are tribes that see borders as nothing more than lines on a map, and governments as forces that come and go. There are blood ties deeper than alliances of convenience, and pockets of extremism that follow religion to violence. It’s a tough place.
But that is no excuse. There must be no safe-haven for terrorists who threaten America. We cannot fail to act because action is hard.
As President, I would make the hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Pakistan conditional, and I would make our conditions clear: Pakistan must make substantial progress in closing down the training camps, evicting foreign fighters, and preventing the Taliban from using Pakistan as a staging area for attacks in Afghanistan.
I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.
And Pakistan needs more than F-16s to combat extremism. As the Pakistani government increases investment in secular education to counter radical madrasas, my Administration will increase America’s commitment. We must help Pakistan invest in the provinces along the Afghan border, so that the extremists’ program of hate is met with one of hope. And we must not turn a blind eye to elections that are neither free nor fair – our goal is not simply an ally in Pakistan, it is a democratic ally.”
It is a shame that the phony election will be delayed to line up pathetic candidates selected specifically to give mushy the dictator the most pathetic transparent political cover.
“I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.
“WE Will” brags Barack Obama Is this a direct quote from Obama? If so, then deliver me from his overweaning self importance.
“I understand that President Musharraf has his own challenges. But let me make this clear. There are terrorists holed up in those mountains who murdered 3,000 Americans. They are plotting to strike again. It was a terrible mistake to fail to act when we had a chance to take out an al Qaeda leadership meeting in 2005. If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act, we will.
“WE Will” brags Barack Obama Is this a direct quote from Obama? If so, then deliver me from his overweaning self importance.