Daily Times : US media intently covers presidential election

US media intently covers presidential election

* Durrani says election process was transparent

APP | October 6, 2007

WASHINGTON: The US media closely followed Saturday’s presidential election in Pakistan and widely covered President Pervez Musharraf’s endorsement by lawmakers for another five years, while underlining the ties between the two countries.

Major Washington newspapers and news channels also noted that the ultimate outcome would be formally announced upon the conclusion of legal challenges pending before the Supreme Court, which is due to resume proceedings on October 17.

The Washington Post, in its Internet edition, ran a lead story by its correspondent headlined “Unofficial Election Results Show Victory for Musharraf”, while it also published an editorial in its Saturday edition on the issue.

Transparent election: “The election process was transparent. It was credible. It was democratic,” the main story quoted Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani as saying. “The opposition had their candidates. But they didn’t vote for their candidates,” he added.

Commenting on the proceedings in the capital, the report said that outside the parliament, “planned protests by the opposition parties failed to materialise, and Islamabad was generally calm”.

However, it noted that the scene in Peshawar was “considerably more contentious’ as “hundreds of lawyers protested outside the assembly, clashing with police who used baton charges and teargas to disperse the crowd. The lawyers set fire to a police vehicle, and several people were injured in the melee”.

In its lead editorial in the print edition, the Post was critical of the election by the current assemblies but appreciated that President Musharraf “has promised that if granted a new mandate as president, he will give up his military command”.

The editorial also noted developments with regard to political reconciliation under which past charges against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto would be dropped and she would be allowed to return to Pakistan and take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Los Angeles Times headlined its report “New term for Musharraf - almost”, as it wrote about various aspects of the political scene in the country. The report by an LA Times staff writer noted that “although the formal outcome is on hold, the balloting was seen as a watershed in Musharraf’s months-long struggle”.

More than 150 opposition lawmakers quit their seats in protest prior to the balloting, and Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Part abstained, “but that made little dent in Musharraf’s near-total support”, the report said, adding that in the national assemblies, he won all but five of the 257 votes cast.

“Also on the eve of the vote, Musharraf signed into law a measure granting an amnesty on corruption charges for Bhutto, the cornerstone of an emerging power-sharing accord between the two,” it observed, and mulling the political situation, stressed that the crux of the matter is whether Pakistan will emerge from months of turmoil with a civilian government.

The Cable News Network also carried a story on its website on Saturday’s vote.