January 8 Election Impossible, Says Pakistan Commission

Pakistan's election commission said today it would be "impossible" to hold an election next week because of the unrest following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The commission is set to announce the formal postponement of the poll tomorrow evening, at around the same time that President Pervez Musharraf is due to address the nation.

It has decided "in principle" to delay the poll and is consulting parties about a new date, according to Reuters.

Delaying the poll could spark protests by those claiming that Musharraf wants to delay the vote to avoid a huge sympathy vote for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Britain and the United States are also eager for the vote to take place as scheduled, but have indicated they would accept a slight delay if technical difficulties dictated one.

Bhutto's killing last week escalated tension in the country and led to violent protests, which were especially severe in her home province of Sindh.

"Our offices in 10 districts of Sindh have been burned, the electoral rolls have been burned, the polling schemes, the nomination papers have been burned," commission spokesman Kanwar Dilshad told reporters.

He said it "looks impossible" to hold the polls on January 8 as scheduled.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who heads a large opposition party and is a vocal critic of Musharraf, threatened street protests if the vote was delayed. Bhutto's party also wants the vote to go ahead on schedule.

"We will not accept this postponement," Sharif said yesterday.

"There are no grounds whatsoever for delaying the elections," Raza Rabbani, the deputy secretary general of the PPP, told Reuters.

"It is being done only on at the behest of the PML-Q [Musharraf's party] as they are seeing their defeat," he said.

Bhutto was killed in a gun and suicide bomb attack that the government blamed on Islamist extremists.

Her husband and other opposition leaders have called for an international, independent investigation into the attack and accused Musharraf of failing to adequately protect her.