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Pakistan election too close to call as counting begins
( 2002-10-11 11:14 ) (7 )

Counting began on Friday after Pakistan's first election since a military coup in 1999, with the race between opponents and supporters of military President Pervez Musharraf too close to call.

Early and sketchy exit polls after Thursday's violence-hit vote pointed to a hung parliament, with a narrow lead for the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) led by Benazir Bhutto, an exiled former Prime Minister and fierce Musharraf critic.

Close behind was the Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam, or PML(QA), widely seen as backing the president -- a key ally in the U.S. war on terror. Islamic parties emerged as possibly holding the key to forming a new government.

General Musharraf has promised to hand over to civilian rule by early November, but decisions to enhance his own powers and ban key opponents from contesting the vote mean he will continue to enjoy considerable influence as president.

Seven people were killed and more than 50 wounded on Thursday in election-related violence, police and hospital officials said.

"I think we are headed for a hung parliament with the PPP... as the single largest group and serious gains for the Islamic alliance," Husain Haqqani of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"If (Musharraf) clamps down too heavily (on parliament) his credibility at having established a democracy will be ruined."

A Bhutto win could usher in a new era of confrontation in Pakistani politics between the military, which has run the country for more than half of its 55-year history, and parliament.

But with no one party likely to win a majority, much will depend on which party can cobble together a coalition.

The poll coincides with renewed tension with nuclear rival India over Kashmir, over which the neighbours have fought two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

"REVOLUTION" FOR RELIGIOUS RIGHT

One player in post-election jockeying could be Islamic parties, which traditionally win only a handful of seats. For the first time, disparate Islamic groups joined forces and now expect a strong showing in sparsely populated western provinces after tapping into broad anger at Musharraf's support of U.S. policy.

"It is a revolution," said Qazi Hussain Ahmed, vice president of the Mutahidda Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Islamic coalition, which has promoted fiery anti-Western policies.

"We will not accept U.S. bases and Western culture," he said.

With 27 of the 342 National Assembly seats counted, the MMA coalition has won 10, Bhutto's PPP had six, and Musharraf ally the PML(QA) five.

The party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, deposed by Musharraf, had two seats with four for smaller parties and independents.

Turnout across the country varied between 22 and 56 percent. Turnout at the 1997 poll was 34.4 percent.

The MMA also took an early lead in Provincial Assembly votes, taking 24 seats in the country's four assemblies to PML(QA)'s 16.

Independent election observers were broadly satisfied with what they saw at ballot stations across the country, although the PPP and the PML(QA) traded accusations about officials being harassed or kidnapped by the other side on polling day.

But the main controversy surrounding the election has been Musharraf's move to consolidate his power and, opponents say, subvert the transition from military to civilian rule.

He enjoys broad support among Pakistan's 140 million people for fighting corruption and imposing a sense of stability after a decade of infighting between the main parties which ended in his seizing power from Sharif in 1999.

A series of constitutional changes enhancing his powers ahead of the poll have convinced many Pakistanis he intends to continue to run the country under the guise of civilian rule.

"This is the first time I am casting my vote for the restoration of democracy, although I know it is not going to be restored," student Khalid Hameed said in Rawalpindi on Thursday.

"In the presence of the army, how can democracy be restored?"

Musharraf has given himself the right to dissolve parliament, institutionalised the military's role in politics through a National Security Council, and has effectively barred Bhutto and Sharif from returning or ever becoming prime minister again.

The changes came hard on the heels of a widely criticised referendum that extended his presidential term for five years.