ISLAMABAD - Pakistan will delay elections until February to give officials more time to prepare after the unrest that followed Benazir BhuttoÂ’s assassination, a senior election official told AFP on Tuesday.
| Give them some time and practice and they'll be just as good as the Lebanese in putting off elections ... |
But with the government facing calls from the United States not to put off the January 8 vote too long and opposition parties arguing against a delay, the official said the election commission could not hold off longer than that. “Elections will not be delayed beyond February. We expect it to be towards the later part of next month,” the official said.
The commission was to make the announcement public later in the day but was holding an urgent meeting Tuesday morning to review security reports from around the country before deciding on the exact date, the official said. “We want the delay to be minimal. But the election commission needs a realistic amount of time to get things back on track,” he said.
Rampaging demonstrators ransacked election offices in several places across Sindh province, destroying voter lists and hampering preparations for the election, the official said. “The situation in Sindh is volatile,” he said. “It is very difficult for election staff to move around.” |