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Pakistan Delays Vote 1 Month

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By MUNIR AHMAD, The Associated Press

Published: January 2, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Elections in Pakistan will be delayed about a month, after the turmoil sparked by Benazir Bhutto's assassination, despite opposition threats of street protests unless the crucial vote is held next Tuesday as originally planned, a top official said Tuesday.

A senior Election Commission official said the commission has agreed on a new date. He indicated it would not be before the second week of February, but refused to disclose the exact schedule before the formal announcement today.

The polls are seen as crucial to restoring democracy.

The opposition is likely to accuse authorities of postponing the voting to help the ruling party, which is allied to President Pervez Musharraf. Many think Bhutto's party could get a sympathy boost if voting took place on time. Bhutto had accused ruling party elements of plotting to kill her, a charge it vehemently denies.

The killing of Bhutto, a former prime minister, triggered three days of nationwide riots that killed 58 people and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.

In addition to logistical problems arising from the destruction caused by the rioting, the elections official said, the governments of all four provinces of Pakistan had suggested that the vote not be held during the holy month of Muharram, from Jan. 10 through Feb. 8, because they could not guarantee security. Violence often breaks out between Pakistan's Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
Opposition groups have demanded that the elections proceed on time, and Nawaz Sharif, leader of another opposition party, threatened street protests.

Britain and the United States also were eager for the vote to take place as scheduled but have indicated they would accept a slight delay.

Meanwhile, a top Bhutto aide revealed on the day she was killed, the opposition leader was planning to give two U.S. congressmen a 160-page dossier accusing the government of rigging the elections.

Sen. Latif Khosa, a lawmaker from Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party, said Bhutto had planned to give the lawmakers a report outlining complaints on "prepoll rigging" by Musharraf's government and the military-run Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

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