|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Controversy mars vote
Ash-har Quraishi
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's return to Democratic rule got off to a rocky start as the National Assembly met to elect a speaker of the House. Even before the day's business began, there was squabbling among members. Some members argued they had been tricked into taking their oath of office under a constitution recently amended by President Pervez Musharraf -- instead if the original 1973 constitution. The presiding officer brushed aside their questions and went ahead with the vote. And then, more controversy. Even though the vote was conducted by secret ballot, assembly members argued over the way names were checked and ballots were cast -- at the end of the vote five ballots were missing. "It is a fake election that has been conducted. The entire assembly has been dishonored," said one voter. When the results were finally tallied, Chaudhry Amir Hussain, a member of the pro-government, pro-Musharraf party was the winner by a large majority. (Full story) The election of a pro-government speaker has been widely seen as a possible precursor to the upcoming vote for Pakistan's next Prime Minister, expected to take place on Friday. However, no single party has enough seats in the assembly to elect a Prime Minister on its own. And more than a month after parliamentary elections political parties have yet to finalize an agreement on a coalition government. Over the past few weeks coalitions have been formed and broken by the hour. So, given the current state of affairs -- just days before the next Prime Minister is to be elected -- who exactly the leader of the incoming government will be remains vague.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
