Pakistan holds postponed parliamentary elections amid opposition fraud warnings News
Pakistan holds postponed parliamentary elections amid opposition fraud warnings

[JURIST] Pakistan [JURIST news archive] held rescheduled parliamentary elections Monday, after a month-long postponement [JURIST report] following the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto [BBC obituary; JURIST news archive]. Final tallies are expected in the next few days, although initial results suggest some gains by opposition parties, which have voiced concerns over potential large-scale fraud. BBC News Monday reported several incidents of voting irregularities as well as a generally low voter turnout, perhaps due to fears of electoral violence.

Bhutto was assassinated [JURIST report] December 27 at a political rally in Rawalpindi. She was campaigning in the lead-up to the elections, then scheduled for January 8, in which her Pakistan People's Party (PPP) was challenging Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) [party websites]. BBC News has more. CBS News has additional coverage.