Party of Bhutto leading in polls
The party of murdered opposition leader Benazir Bhutto is Pakistan’s most popular, according to a survey released ahead of next week’s crucial elections.
The survey, conducted for the US-based Terror Free Tomorrow organisation and released over the weekend, is the first since Ms Bhutto was killed in a bomb and gun attack in December.
The survey also found that sympathy for al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and the Taliban has dropped sharply among Pakistanis.
Pakistanis appear to be looking to moderate opposition groups to seek a way out of the mounting violence and political turmoil that have raised concerns about the nuclear-armed country’s stability.
But the poll was a slap for President Pervez Musharraf, whose standing has plunged since he began reining in Pakistan’s independent judiciary last March in order to ensure his own re-election – 70% of those questioned wanted him to quit immediately.
Asked who they would vote for in the February 18 parliamentary elections, 36.7% opted for Ms Bhutto’s secular Pakistan People’s Party.
The party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, scored 25.3%, pushing the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q into third place with just 12%.
The People’s Party hopes to capitalise on a wave of sympathy and revulsion after she died in a suicide bomb and gun attack at an election rally on December 27.
The combined support for the parties of Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif was just 39% in a similar survey in August, Terror Free Tomorrow said. It provided no breakdown.
However, Pakistan’s winner-takes-all electoral system and strong regional-based parties means that a broader-based party such as Ms Bhutto’s, whose votes are spread across the country, can struggle to translate their vote bank into power.
Terror Free Tomorrow, which is based in Washington DC, is a not-for-profit organisation that says it seeks to reduce support for international terrorism.
It said the survey was based on interviews with 1,157 people across Pakistan from January 19-29.
Rising violence has put a damper on campaigning ahead of the vote, especially in the northwest, where a suicide bomber yesterday killed 27 people at an election rally.
The blast devastated a hall where about 200 people had gathered in the town of Charsadda, in the turbulent North West Frontier province bordering Afghanistan.
Hundreds of mourners wept today as villagers buried victims of the attack on the rally, which was organised by the secular Awami National Party, which competes against Islamist parties for support among the ethnic Pashtun who dominate the region.
No group claimed responsibility, but suspicion fell on Islamic extremists.
