Pakistan poll delay advised
Officials recommend delay to Pakistan elections after Benazir Bhutto's assassination
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Monday, 31, Dec 2007 04:37
Officials in Pakistan have advised the government to delay elections scheduled for January 8th in the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The country's election commission is set to make a final recommendation to president Pervez Musharraf tomorrow, but has already revealed it is in favour of a delay.
Its secretary Kanwar Dilashad told journalists today a recommendation "has been sent to the government for a delay".
Civil unrest has gripped Pakistan in the days following Ms Bhutto's assassination in Rawalpindi on December 27th, with up to 40 people killed.
Her son Bilawal and widower husband Asif Ali Zardari, who have assumed control of her Pakistan People's party (PPP), are demanding elections go ahead as scheduled.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, a longstanding rival of Ms Bhutto, has also backed the January 8th polls, despite election houses being burned down and ballot boxes and papers being destroyed across the country.
Earlier on Monday the dispute over the circumstances of Ms Bhutto's death was reopened.
The official version of events is that the twice-former prime minister died when an explosion forced her head against the handle of her vehicle's sun roof as she left a political rally.
But new video footage shown by Pakistan broadcasters appears to show her already within the car when the suspected suicide bomber blew himself up.
According to the PPP, Ms Bhutto died after being shot twice.
Speaking yesterday Bilawal Bhutto - an Oxford University law student who is too young to be put forward as the PPP prime ministerial candidate - vowed to continue his mother's legacy.
"My mother always said democracy is the best revenge," he said at a press conference.