Pakistani Opposition Parties Win the Parliamentary Elections

IBN Reports that it appears that Democracy has prevailed, and Pakistanis have not allowed Benazir Bhutto’s death be in vain. (Video Below)

Kudos to the brave Pakistani’s who voted overwhelmingly against Musharraf ’s party today:

By Khalid Qayum and James Rupert on Bloomberg:

There has been an anti-incumbency swing, and it looks like it’s of a big magnitude,” said Haris Gazdar, a Pakistani political and economic researcher at the London School of Economics.

Stocks rallied, with the benchmark index posting its biggest gain in more than six weeks.

The TriCityHerald’s Matthew Pennington writes:

Monday’s elections, in which the ruling party mustered just 15 percent of the vote, exposed how little support Musharraf has among Pakistan’s 160 million people. Many are alarmed at rising Islamic militancy, weary of prolonged military rule and angry at high food prices.

The parties of Bhutto and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whom Musharraf ousted in a 1999 coup, came close to winning the two-thirds majority needed to impeach the president. According to nearly complete official returns, Bhutto’s party has 33.6 percent of National Assembly seats, and Sharif’s 25.9 percent.

[...]

On Tuesday, Sharif reiterated his demand for Musharraf to step down - recalling the president’s statement last year that he would resign if he ever lost the support of the people.

“He has closed his eyes. He has said before that he would go when the people want him to do so and now the people have given their verdict,” Sharif told reporters in Lahore.

An article in the International Herald Tribune points out that this could be good news for the United States:

At first glance, the resounding defeat of President Pervez Musharraf’s party in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections might seem a setback to the U.S. battle against terrorism.

After all, Musharraf has been a key ally in the fight against al-Qaida. The election results could bring heavy public pressure to bear on the next Pakistani government to cooperate less with the United States.

But there were also signs for optimism. Pakistan appeared headed toward its first elected civilian government after eight years of military rule. And while top Musharraf supporters were repudiated, the winning opposition parties are politically moderate. The vote was also a rebuke to Islamist parties, which lost control of a province where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters have sought refuge.

The outcome held the possibility of restoring order in a country whose population is weary of violence.

 

 

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