M A I N   N E W S

Landslide win for Pervez

Pakistan Information Minister Nisar Memon speaks at a news conference in front of a picture of Father of the Nation Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Islamabad on Wednesday. Memon told reporters the turn-out at Tuesday's referendum was beyond government's expectations. Officials visit the site of a bomb blast in Karachi on Wednesday. Two bombs exploded in Pakistan's port city, injuring 16 persons on the eve of a general strike called by a regional political party, the police said.  — Reuters photos

Islamabad, May 1
As widely expected, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf today secured overwhelming support to remain in office for another five years in a nationwide referendum, slammed by critics as a farce with grave implications for parliamentary elections due in October.

With three quarters of the votes polled in yesterday’s referendum counted, Information Minister Nisar Memon said the “yes” vote was running at 98 per cent.

Overruling complaints of large scale irregularities by mainstream political parties, the Election Commission said with the bulk of the counting nearly completed, President Musharraf had secured 3.65 crore “yes” votes against 6.25 lakh “no” votes.

It also said the turnout of the voters in the “vote anywhere” referendum was an unprecedented 50 per cent, which was a record of sorts in the electoral history of Pakistan.

Mainstream political and religious parties which boycotted the referendum said the turnout was abysmally low at 5 per cent and that “inflated” official figures only proved their allegation of large-scale rigging.

In the first independent assessment of the vote, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), in a damning statement on the conduct of the referendum, said irregularities “exceeded its worst fears.”

“The manner in which the people were hustled into voting and the flagrant abuse of election procedures degraded the very concept of democratic choice,” HRCP chairman Afrasiab Khattak said.

Observers, who were supposed to be neutral, had been seen “stamping ballots themselves,” Mr Khattak said, adding that “voluntary turnout was very low” with public sector workers being obliged to vote.

The Information Minister said, “People have given their verdict and those who do not accept this are not supporters of democracy”.

He said the number of “yes” votes was high because of the boycott announced by the Opposition.

In London, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don Mckinnon said the referendum was not part of the roadmap to democracy and insisted on a full return to constitutional rule in Pakistan. PTI