Musharraf hopes for election victory

PAKISTAN: Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf Wednesday said he hoped to be re-elected for another five years this week despite mass resignations by opposition parties.

Musharraf faces two civilian candidates in the October 6 vote by national and provincial parliaments and legal challenges to his candidacy in the country’s Supreme Court.

His bid to strike a power-sharing pact with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has also stalled and her party is threatening to resign to pile up pressure on him after another opposition group resigned this week.

“Presidential elections would be democratic despite resignations,” Musharraf told private Geo television in a recorded interview.

He said only 163 out of 1,170 MPs had resigned from federal and provincial assemblies and around 1,000 would still cast their votes. “If there are more resignations then it may affect the credibility of (the) election,” Musharraf said.

The general also said he was not worried by opposition calls to block the election.

“This opposition has done it before several times ... if 400, 500 or 1,500 people come out on the street it does not matter. I will ask the people to stay in the comforts of their homes,” he said.

Musharraf agreed that his popularity had plummeted but pointed to a recent poll which showed it rising..

ISLAMABAD, Thursday, AFP