President Gen Pervez Musharraf on Saturday won a one-sided election for another five-year term from a truncated parliamentary electoral college amid boycotts and protests while the fate of the 55 per cent votes cast for him by his own loyalists, still lay in the hands of the Supreme Court.

As only a few votes were cast against him in what were left as opposition-less two houses of parliament and four provincial assemblies and for a symbolic rival, there was partial strike in some cities and towns while lawyers held protests against Gen Musharraf’s disputed candidacy.

The victory was thus a foregone conclusion.He got 384 votes, or 55 per cent, of the 702-vote, but 1,170-member electoral college, which was hugely depleted by resignations by most opposition parties earlier this week and a last-minute walkout by the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), the largest opposition party, despite a controversial National Reconciliation Ordinance he issued on Friday to meet some of its demands for a smooth transition to full democracy.

Former Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmed, who stood as only a symbolic rival, as did PPP chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, to be able to pose legal challenges to Gen Musharraf’s candidature before the Election Commission and then to the Supreme Court, got a total of five votes.

No vote was cast for Mr Fahim and a covering PPP candidate, Mrs Faryal Talpur, after the party said it was ‘abstaining’ from the process — rather than resigning like other parties grouped in the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) alliance - in what was actually a boycott on the ground the president was standing while continuing as army chief.

It was the first time in 60 years of Pakistan’s life that an army chief was elected president.

The country’s first military ruler Mohammad Ayub Khan became an un-retiring field marshal but handed over to General Mohammad Musa as army commander-in-chief before his 1964 election from a 40,000-strong electoral college of Basic Democrats while the second, General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, got himself elected through a controversial referendum as did General Musharraf for his present term in 2002.

Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq announced what is called as unofficial count of vote held at the parliament house in Islamabad from 10am to 3pm, to cheers and ‘President Musharraf Zindabad’ slogans from about 40 ruling coalition members who were still present there with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, although a Supreme Court bench has forbidden a formal notification of the winner until it finally rules over petitions challenging General Musharraf’s candidacy.

The 10-member bench had refused pleas from the lawyers of Mr Fahim and Mr Wajihuddin on Friday to stay the election before adjourning the hearing of their petitions until Oct 17.

The APDM parties had resigned from about 200 seats from the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies in a move to rob the presidential election of political legitimacy while the electoral college’s demise is due with the completion of the assemblies’ five-year terms on Nov 15.

But the process was spared a further erosion of credibility by a last-minute government agreement on a political package with the PPP to avoid resignations by the party and the failure of the MMA alliance ruling the North-West Frontier Province to dissolve the provincial assembly before the presidential vote.
The United States on Saturday gave a cautious congratulations to Pakistan, but withheld comment on reports that military ruler Pervez Musharraf registered a sweeping presidential election win.White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said

Pakistan is an important partner and ally to the United States and we congratulate them for today’s election

Refusing to comment on the result, he further cleared

We look forward to the electoral commission’s announcement and to working with all of Pakistan’s leaders on important bilateral, regional and counterterrorism issues.