Pakistan Opposition Wins Nationwide Vote as Musharraf Rejected

Pakistan's opposition parties won national parliamentary elections yesterday as voters sought an end to President Pervez Musharraf's eight years of military rule.
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Former prime minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif said he will work with the late Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party and other victorious parties to end ``dictatorship forever'' in Pakistan. The two main political groups will need to woo allies and independent candidates to secure the two-thirds of seats needed to reverse constitutional changes that have kept Musharraf in power since a 1999 military coup.

``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.

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With 258 of 268 constituencies reported, Bhutto's party moved into the lead with 87 seats and Sharif's group won 66, according to the independent GEO Television's Web site. Four constituencies postponed the election because of violence or the deaths of candidates.

The pro-Musharraf party won in 38 constituencies, Geo said. The official Election Commission tally showed Bhutto's party with 72 seats, Sharif's party with 57 seats and Musharraf's backers with 26 victories out of 212 parliamentary seats.

Sharif said the decision to seek Musharraf's removal or impeach him will be decided in consultation with other parties.