Pakistan's Musharraf Sweeps Election

[Akoto]

Source: Associated Press

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's Gen. Pervez Musharraf swept Saturday's presidential election, according to unofficial results, but the Supreme Court could still disqualify the military leader in the vote boycotted by nearly all of Pakistan's opposition.

The election by federal and provincial lawmakers was a one-sided affair. Just over half the eligible lawmakers turned out to vote, with nearly all the opposition parties abstaining or boycotting to protest Musharraf's bid for a new five-year term while still army chief.

In total, Musharraf won 671 votes, compared with just eight for his main rival - retired judge Wajihuddin Ahmad. Six ballots were invalid, election officials said.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the official results can only be declared after it rules on complaints lodged by Musharraf's opponents that his candidacy is unconstitutional.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PAKISTAN_POLITICS?SITE=ILMOL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[bullimiami]

1. this is the type of election the fascists would like us to have here. a predetermined sham.

musharref of course meets all the qualifications to be a fob. (friend of bush)

1) He plays ball.
2) There is no 2.

[olddad56]

6. isn't it the type we had in 2000 and 2004? Why would 2008 be any different.

[tom_paine]

8. Ummm. We already have that at the National Level.

Amerikan national elections, given the evidence (unpursued by invetsigators) laying all over the place for all manner of Bushie Electoral felonies (the 2004 Warren County Terrorism Lie, to name a single episode of literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, from 2000-06), are laughably unbelievable.

It would take a whole lot of electoral reform to restore my confidence in our currently totalitarian vote counting system.

[ohio2007]

2. democracy = boycotted election?

if they can't win,
they whine?
the 'opposition' in parliment isn't really interested in democracy

[Posteritatis]

13. Or they don't want to participate in what would probably be a rigged vote. (nt)

[ohio2007]

16. thats called democracy,Iranan style. nt

[Toots]

3. Pretty much the same ratio as Saddam had when he "won" re-election in Iraq

Those people really must love them military dictator types..

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Time to invade Venezuela! nt.

[AwareOne]

5. "President" Musharraf is a military dictator

who overthrew the legal government of Pakistan. Pakistan has nuclear weapons and has threatened to use them. When Musharraf came to the U.S. he was treated like a rock star by the press and got a standing ovation from the U.S. congress. Yes he is a dictator with nuclear weapons, but he's our friend. Hows that for hypocrisy? What a joke we have become.

[tom_paine]

7. The Pakistanis are having Amerikan-style "elections"

I actually like the idea of an oppositional boycott.

Modern tyrants like Bush and Musharraf know that it's stupid to do "elections" Saddam-Hitler-Stalin style, with 99% margins of victory. It took a century, but people finally wised up to that one (why do I get the feeling that the Imperial Subjects of Amerika are in the process of de-wiseing up about such things).

So now guys like Putin, Bushler and Musharraf stage elaborate, "slightly" stolen elections where the outcome is the same as if they had done the more ego-gratifying thing of giving themselves 99% of the "vote" (Bushler is probably unable to give himself that kind of margin at this time, even if he wanted to, but in a generation or two).

Unfortunately, if you pull out that way, there are other consequences, one being that if the assessment is wrong and the system is still semi-fucntional and not as corrupt as one thinks, the tyrants have won without firing a shot or tasering a single skinny student.

[varun]

9. Busharraf

that describes both Bush and Mush.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. LOL! Well crafted. nt

[Nutmegger]

10. OH sure, we know all about these "elections".

It's the type that's approved by Bush Inc. Can't have our own puppet go down in a blaze.

[daleo]

12. In the scale of phony elections

This one rings the bell.

[originalpckelly]

14. Did the opposition to Chavez boycott Venezuela's elections?

I guess that's what happens in dictatorships as a last resort.

[EFerrari]

15. Please beg, buy or borrow a clue before you continue to embarrass

yourself and this board with these comparisons.