[The election has evoked
a rare sense of enthusiasm for politics in Pakistan. Some 4,670 candidates are
fighting for 272 directly elected seats in the national parliament, while
almost 11,000 people are battling for the four provincial assemblies. Aside
from more traditional politicians, candidates included astrologers,
transgenders, former models and the first female candidates in the tribal belt
along the Afghan border.]
By Declan Walsh
 |
Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press
Women line up to enter a polling station on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday.
|
LAHORE, Pakistan – Pakistanis went to the polls for a historic election on Saturday,
their excitement mingled with trepidation as the country marked a democratic
milestone with a riveting electoral contest that was threatened by fresh
violence from Taliban insurgents.
A bomb in the southern
port of Karachi killed at least 11 people, doctors said, offering an ominous
start to the day following Taliban threats to dispatch suicide bombers to
selected targets across the country. At least 17 people have been killed in the
violence, which included a gunfight and an attack on a polling station in the
western province of Balochistan, and two explosions in the northwest, including
Peshawar, that left several people injured.
The attack in Karachi
appeared directed at a candidate from the Awami National Party, one of three
secular-leaning parties that have borne the brunt of Taliban attacks in the
last month that have killed at least 110 people.
But in several cities
the early turnout was strong, supporting predictions of unusually high voter
participation in a triangular contest that is dominated by the battle between
Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, and Imran Khan, a sports star turned
political phenomenon.
The election is
Pakistan’s 10th since 1970 but only the first where a civilian government has
served a full five-year term and is poised to peacefully hand power to another
political administration.
It is also the election
that has seen the least amount of interference from the country’s military.
While army generals have ruled Pakistan directly for more than half its 66-year
history, and indirectly most of the rest of the time, this time the military
has largely steered clear of getting involved in the election.
There have been few
allegations of manipulation by the military’s Inter Services-Intelligence
Directorate, which in previous elections had bribed or intimidated candidates
to obtain a result favorable to the military leadership.
Instead the country has
been gripped by election fever in recent weeks, most of it driven by the
contest between Mr. Sharif and Mr. Khan. Although Mr. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim
League-N party is favored to win the highest number of seats, it is unlikely to
gain a majority thanks to an aggressive challenge from Mr. Khan in Punjab province.
Mr. Khan electrified the
campaign in recent weeks with a series of mass rallies that tapped into a deep
vein of support among young and middle-class Pakistanis in urban areas. Public
sympathy for the former cricket star rose after he fell nearly 15 feet during a
rally on Tuesday night, injuring his back.
Two nights later Mr.
Khan delivered his final campaign address, speaking from his hospital bed via
video link, to a crowd of frenzied supporters in central Islamabad. His success
in today’s poll will depend partly on his ability to persuade young voters - 25
million Pakistanis under the age of 30 are eligible to vote - to stand in line
in the summer heat and cast their votes.
The election results
will also have implications for the United States, which is enjoying a lull in
its previously stormy relationship with Pakistan in recent years.
Mr. Sharif, a
conservative and a steel baron, came to American attention in 1999 during a
tense, confrontation with India that averted the possibility of a nuclear conflict
thanks to mediation by President Bill Clinton.
A nationalist by
inclination, on the campaign trail Mr. Sharif hinted that he would seek to
redraw Pakistan’s relationship with America and negotiate with Taliban rebels,
but offered few specifics.
Mr. Khan, however, has
more defined ideas: he has vowed to end C.I.A. drone strikes in Pakistan’s
tribal belt by ordering the Pakistani military to shoot down American aircraft
if necessary, and he believes that the state should negotiate with Taliban
insurgents, not fight them.
The election has evoked
a rare sense of enthusiasm for politics in Pakistan. Some 4,670 candidates are
fighting for 272 directly elected seats in the national parliament, while
almost 11,000 people are battling for the four provincial assemblies. Aside
from more traditional politicians, candidates included astrologers,
transgenders, former models and the first female candidates in the tribal belt
along the Afghan border.
Also standing for
election are dozens of candidates from Sunni sectarian groups, some with links
to violent attacks on minority Shiites.
But the sense of a
vibrant, if imperfect, democracy has been tempered by Taliban attacks
throughout the campaigning, which suggest that the Islamist movement has moved
beyond its image as a nihilistic guerrilla movement, based principally in the
mountainous northwest, to a political insurgent group with firmly shaped
objectives to upend western-style democracy in Pakistan.
In a statement on
Friday, the Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud ordered his commanders to attack
the “infidel system” of democracy, warning that teams of suicide bombers would
hit targets across the country.
The police established
new checkposts and military helicopters patrolled the skies in Peshawar, the
northwestern city that has been worst hit by militant violence. Hospital staff
were put on alert while billboard signs across the city asked citizens to be
vigilant in watching for suspicious activity.
But after a slow start
to polling, large numbers of voters emerged by mid morning, including many
women. About 300 burka-clad women stood in line outside the Lady Griffith High
School, where policemen warned photographers not to take their picture.
One of the women, Saba
Iqbal, a 35-year-old doctor, said she was going to vote for Mr. Khan’s Pakistan
Tehrik-i-Insaaf party.
“I never voted before
but this time I want to be part of Imran Khan’s change,” she said.
Campaigning was further
marred on Thursday when Ali Haider Gilani, the 27-year-old son of former prime
minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, was shot and kidnapped by unidentified gunmen as
he addressed a campaign event in the city of Multan, in southern Punjab
Province.
Two guards who tried to
protect Mr. Gilani were shot dead; the candidate was reportedly left bleeding
from a gunshot wound as he was dragged into a vehicle and driven away.
President Asif Ali
Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party, which led the last government, has found
itself badly overshadowed in the race following a lackluster and leaderless
campaign that was further marred by the Taliban threats.
The party had developed
a poor reputation for governance as the economy has faltered in recent years
and ministers failed to reverse crippling power shortages that have caused
misery in homes and hardship for industrialists. On Saturday, there were signs
that voters may punish even party stalwarts for their failings.
In the Gujar Khan
district, in northern Punjab province, former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf
faced a tough fight against Raja Javed Akhlas, a contender from Mr. Sharif’s
party. During his time in power, Mr. Ashraf poured tens of millions of dollars
into the district through new roads, underpasses and gas connections for
constituents – staples of the patronage politics that characterize traditional
politics here.
Emerging from his
palatial home, Mr. Ashraf cast his vote in a nearby polling station as
supporters waved flags and Mr. Ashraf’s wife offered a prayer. But in Gujjar
Khan town, the district centre, many voters appeared disillusioned with his
record.
“I hate Raja,” said
Muhammad Ishfaq, a 53-year-old businessman and father of four, who went on to
make a series of corruption allegations against Mr. Ashraf. “I feel Nawaz
Sharif is the right person,” he said.
Salman Masood contributed reporting from Gujar
Khan and Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud contributed from Peshawar.