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Postponed Poll

Pakistan Elections Delayed until Feb. 18

The unrest that followed the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has prompted Pakistan's electoral commission to delay elections until Feb. 18. Opposition parties had demanded the poll go ahead on Jan. 8 and now warn that there could be more riots.

Opposition parties in Pakistan cried foul on Wednesday after it was announced that parliamentary elections will be postponed until Feb. 18. The official line is that the delay was necessary following the unrest that erupted after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated last Thursday. However, the government's opponents suspect it is desperate to avoid a trouncing at the polls.

Pakistan's electoral commission announced its decision at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon despite demands from opposition parties that the poll go ahead as scheduled on Jan. 8.

The opposition accused the authorities of using delaying tactics to avoid a defeat for the ruling party, which is closely allied to President Pervez Musharraf. Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had been hoping to reap a strong sympathy vote in the wake of her murder. "We reject the delay outright," Sen. Babar Awan of the PPP said after the election commission made its announcement. "Musharraf fears outright defeat. If this election process is jeopardized, they (PPP supporters) may protest again and there is a chance of riots."

The killing of the 54-year-old veteran politician and two-time prime minister last week triggered three days of riots and unrest in which 58 people were killed and many buildings and cars were set on fire. In the province of Sindh, a Bhutto stronghold, 10 election offices were burned.

The head of Pakistan's election commission Qazi Mohammed Farooq insisted Wednesday that the violence and destruction had made it impossible to go head with the elections next week. "Polling will now be held on Feb. 18 instead of Jan. 8."

President Musharraf said on Wednesday that the army and paramilitary will be deployed to ensure that the election would be peaceful. In a televised address to the nation the president also said that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had agreed to send British police to Pakistan to help investigate Bhutto's murder.

"This team will come immediately and will assist our team in the investigation," he announced. "I hope these investigations would be done properly with Scotland Yard and remove all doubts."

The government had initially blamed the killing on radical Islamists linked to al-Qaida but many Pakistanis suspect the security forces of having had a hand in the assassination. The government insistence that Bhutto died by hitting her head on the lever of the sunroof of her car was widely derided. The PPP insists she died from gunshot wounds.

smd/reuters/ap