Pakistan awaits result of key vote

Court to rule on Musharraf's claim of victory

— Gen. Pervez Musharraf won an overwheming majority in a presidential election boycotted by nearly the entire opposition Saturday, and attention shifted to Supreme Court deliberations on whether he can claim victory.

Opposition parties that snubbed the vote claimed it was undemocratic and unconstitutional for the general, who seized power in a 1999 coup and is a U.S. ally in the war on terror, to run while still army chief.

The Pakistani Supreme Court is weighing that argument before permitting the release of official results, though analysts question whether it would dare deny him victory and potentially throw thecountry into chaos.

Members of the National Assembly and the Senate, including Cabinet ministers, gathered in the main parliamentary chamber in the capital at midmorning to answer a roll call and cast ballots. The unofficial count was announced by 4 p.m. Islamabad time.

In total, Musharraf won 671 votes, while the retired judge who was his main rival, Wajihuddin Ahmad, received just eight. Six ballots were invalid, election officials said. In all, 1,170 federal and provincial lawmakers were eligible to vote.

"This is a very welcome result," the prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, told reporters.

Ahmed, representing a lawyers group, and Makhdoom Amin Fahim from the party of exiled Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, both described their candidacies as largely symbolic.

Musharraf dismissed criticism that the boycott had undermined the legitimacy of the election.

"Democracy means majority, whether there is opposition or no opposition," Musharraf told reporters on the lawn of his official residence. "A majority - a vast majority - have voted for me, and therefore that result is the result."

Speculation persists that if Musharraf is blocked, he might declare martial law, and the army chief appeared annoyed when asked if he would step down as president if the Supreme Court ruled against him.

"Let the decision come and then we will decide," he said.

Musharraf's key international backer, the United States, gave an upbeat response on the conduct of the election, although the State Department stressed that the results were unofficial until the court verdict.

"Pakistan is an important partner and ally to the United States, and we congratulate them for today's election. We look forwardto the electoral commission's announcement and to working with all of Pakistan's leaders on important bilateral, regional and counterterrorism issues," Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said in Washington.

In the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida, Musharraf has sent troops to battle Islamic militants in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, but that military push is foundering.

The ruling party celebrated Saturday's vote with fireworks and said it looked forward to parliamentary elections due by January, but their enthusiasm was not shared by a public cynical of Pakistan's elitist politics and the military's long domination of the country.

"We have a saying that 'He who owns the stick, owns thebuffalo,'" said Ijaz Shah, a grocer relaxing on the lawns in front of the federal Parliament. "If the government really had support, there would have been thousands of people here to cheer it."

There was only a token protest from demonstrators in the capital and a walkout by members of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the party of former Prime Minister Bhutto. A group of lawyers staged a demonstration outside the assembly in the North-West Frontier Province, burning an effigy of Musharraf and attacking an armored police vehicle with sticks after it ran over the feet of two senior lawyers.

Musharraf's popularity hasplummeted since a failed bid to oust the country's top judge in March, and he is struggling to contain a surge in Islamic militancy.

He has promised to give up his powerful army post and restore civilian rule if he wins the election.

The former minister of tourism, Nilofer Bakhtiar, who had said she would not vote for Musharraf if he remained in uniform, said his recent promise had satisfied her.

"I am here only because he said he would take off his uniform," she said Saturday. "He will take the oath in a suit."

She added that she believed the general would respect the Supreme Court if it ruled against him. "If the court goes against him, he will quietly quit," she said. "He has the courage to do that."

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the official results can be declared only after it rules on complaints lodged by Musharraf's opponents on his eligibility. Hearings on those petitions will resume Oct. 17. Musharraf's current presidential term expires Nov. 15.

Munir Malik, a lawyer for the main rival presidential candidate Ahmad, criticized the election commission's decision to count the vote and publish unofficial results.

"What they are trying to do is tell the Supreme Court, 'Look, Pervez Musharraf has won an overwhelming majority.' So they are trying to intimidate the court," Malik said. "These judges have got to go with the people of Pakistan and not with the army generals."

It appears likely Musharraf will form an alliance with Bhutto after the parliamentary elections - an alliance favored by the West to fight Islamic extremism. On Friday, he signed into law an amnesty quashing corruption charges against Bhutto, who is due to return to Pakistan on Oct. 18.

Bhutto's party abstained from Saturday's voting but did not resign from Parliament as other opposition factions did over Musharraf's candidacy.

The government hailed the vote as evidence of public support for Musharraf and a success for democracy in Pakistan. The opposition condemned it as a mockery, saying the presidential vote should have followed parliamentary elections.

Rather than seek a fresh mandate from the next Parliament, Musharraf turned to the outgoing assemblies that had already authorized his current term. Critics say it is unfair, as it means garnering 10 years in the presidency from lawmakers elected for only five.

"We will not accept him as president. He flouted the constitution, and he is a person who has hardly any respect for the rule of law," said Sadique ul-Farooq, an ally of former premier Nawaz Sharif, whose elected government Musharraf toppled eight years ago.

"Everything about the election was constitutional, legal, moral and legitimate," said Sher Afgan Khan Niazi, parliamentary affairs minister.

Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Pennington, Munir Ahmad, Sadaqat Jan, Zarar Khan, Stephen Graham and Riaz Khan of The Associated Press; by Carlotta Gall, Salman Masood and Ismail Khan of The New York Times; and by Laura King of the Los Angeles Times.

Front Section, Pages 1, 12 on 10/07/2007

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