Bad signs for Musharraf in early Pakistan vote count

[maddezmom]

Source: Reuters

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Early results from Pakistan's parliamentary elections on Monday showed the political friends of U.S. ally President Pervez Musharraf were struggling.

Overall trends were unlikely to become clear until Tuesday morning, but small groups of opposition supporters, perhaps prematurely, celebrated in the streets of Lahore and Rawalpindi.

"This is the voice of the nation," Musharraf said on state-run Pakistan Television. "Everyone should accept the results, that includes myself."

Musharraf pledged to work with the victors to build democracy in a country that has alternated between civilian and army rule throughout its 60-year history.

A hostile parliament could try to remove Musharraf, who came to power as a general in a 1999 coup and emerged as a crucial Muslim ally in a war on terrorism that most Pakistanis think is America's not theirs.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080218/ts_nm/pakistan_elec...

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Some Pakistan women warded off voting By KATHY GANNON, Associated Press Writer
3 minutes ago



KHAZANA, Pakistan - Posters of the Muslim world's first female prime minister, the late Benazir Bhutto, fluttered in the wind. But the ballot boxes inside the women's polling station of this impoverished village were empty Monday.

The elders of the village in the Islamic nation's conservative northwest took their own vote the day before Pakistan staged its crucial elections. They decided women would not have a say in selecting the constituency's national and provincial lawmakers.

No one defied the order, said Farida Begum, an election official at the largest segregated polling station in Khazana.

"Everything is available for women to vote. We are here but no one is coming so we are just sitting and gossiping," said Begum, her stout frame hidden behind a white chador or shawl.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080218/ap_on_re_as/pakista... ;_ylt=AtKVUC1UjKWfo.grcdLlROIBxg8F