Vote defeat piles pressure on Musharraf

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The ruling party of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf admitted defeat in parliamentary polls Tuesday as early results pointed to a crushing blow for the Washington's key ally in its fight against Islamic extremists in the region.
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Headlines hail early results at a roadside stall in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday.
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"We concede and congratulate the people who have won the elections," Mushahid Syed Hussain, general secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, told CNN.

In the wake of the results, pressure was already increasing on Musharraf to relinquish his tight grip on power, raising the prospect of more turmoil in the nuclear-armed country, which has witnessed a surge in violent attacks -- including the assassination of a key political figure in recent months.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup said the president should take the result as a signal to step down, The Associated Press reported.

Thousands of ecstatic Pakistanis, waving placards and singing, took to the streets Tuesday as the results trickled in.

"All the King's Men, Gone!" blared the headline in the English-language The Daily Times. "Heavyweights knocked out," proclaimed the newspaper, Dawn.

The voting in the country's first general elections in six years ended with no overt signs of tampering and relatively little violence. Twenty-three people were killed across the nation in vote-related incident, according to a tally by CNN.
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National voter turnout for the parliamentary race exceeded expectations with 45.69 percent of the 81 million eligible voters casting ballots, the election commission told CNN.

"I think it's a very dramatic statement about what happens when people can vote," former U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry, who has been observing the elections, told CNN from Islamabad.

He added that the people of Pakistan "spoke up for change, they spoke up for a different course. I think now Pakistan is looking at a dramatic moment of opportunity."

Final results were not expected before Tuesday evening. But early numbers released by the election commission showed big wins for the opposition parties of two former prime ministers.

By 1 p.m. Tuesday (3 a.m. ET), the election commission had posted results for 137 seats in the National Assembly.
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The Pakistan People's Party of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto -- who was assassinated in the run-up to the elections -- won 39 seats.

Also capturing 39 seats was the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the party of former prime minister Sharif.

Sharif, like Bhutto, returned from exile late last year to compete in the elections.

The Musharraf-allied Pakistan Muslim League-Q won 16 seats in the preliminary results.

There are a total of 272 seats in the assembly.

If either of two main opposition parties win a two-thirds majority in parliament, they could take steps to impeach Musharraf. That also could happen if the opposition parties together capture two-thirds of the seats in parliament and then form a coalition.

Musharraf has said that he will accept the outcome of the elections "with grace" and promises to work with the new government.

"Whoever is the prime minister, I will work with that person in a reconciliatory mode," the former general, who seized power in a 1999 coup, told reporters. "We should end the confrontationist politics. Let's enter into a conciliatory politics."

The elections are crucial from an American standpoint. Washington has poured billions of dollars in aid toward Musharraf's government, an ally in its battle against the al Qaeda terrorist network and the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban movement in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Bush administration's priority for Pakistan is to deprive al Qaeda of the sanctuary it has established along the country's rugged border with Afghanistan, and to reverse the momentum the Taliban has achieved in attacks on both sides of the border.
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But given that many Pakistanis disapprove of the way Musharraf has carried out his end of the "war on terror" -- and used it as a crutch to explain away many of his unpopular moves -- analysts say it's unlikely a new government will move as aggressively on counterterrorism issues as the U.S. would like.

For the average Pakistani, Musharraf's unpopularity has to do with factors that are closer to home: shortage of essential food items, power cuts, and a skyrocketing inflation.