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Pakistan commission names poll date

Pakistan's election commission yesterday named Oct. 6 as the date for a presidential poll in which Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf will seek a new five-year term, even as opponents urged the Supreme Court to stop him from running.

Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, aims to stay on as president despite a sharp drop in his popularity and growing pressure for the restoration of democracy. The ruling coalition says it has enough votes to re-elect him.

Opposition parties are threatening to boycott the vote to deny it legitimacy. There is no sign they will field a candidate of their own.

Government officials confirmed that Musharraf intended to run. Pakistani Information Minister Mohammed Ali Durrani said the announcement of the election date was "a good day in the history of Pakistan."

Musharraf's current term expires on Nov. 15.

The main threat to Musharraf's plan appears to be its disputed legality. The Supreme Court yesterday continued hearing a raft of complaints -- including over recent changes to the election rules that favor Musharraf.

A ruling on the general's eligibility to run is expected within days.

Raja Zafarul Haq, chairman of the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif -- whose elected government Musharraf ousted eight years ago -- said the Election Commission should have waited until after the court makes its ruling before announcing the vote date.

"It has been done in haste," he said.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim dismissed the opposition concerns.

"The opposition should come up with its own candidate to participate in the contest, if they have any," he said.

The party of another ex-prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, whose talks with Musharraf over a possible power-sharing deal have stalled, has threatened to join Sharif's party and a hard-line Islamic coalition in boycotting the vote unless the president relinquishes his army post first.

The chief of the Commonwealth yesterday urged Musharraf to stick to his promise to doff his uniform. He said the other key test of Pakistan's return to democracy would be the fairness of parliamentary elections due by January.

Don McKinnon, secretary-general of the 53-member grouping of former British colonies, said that Pakistan was at a critical stage in its volatile history of on-off military rule.

The Commonwealth suspended Pakistan from its decision-making councils after Musharraf's coup in 1999. Full membership was restored in 2004, but the group has continued urging the president to restore civilian rule.

Musharraf's pledge to continue as a civilian president "is very much the essence of what the Commonwealth was concerned about," McKinnon said in an interview in Islamabad. "He's made the commitment and one would wish to see it [followed] right through."

"If people are satisfied that the [parliamentary] elections are free and fair, that will be a very good sign that Pakistan's on a good path,"McKinnon said.

As well as calls for restoring democracy, Musharraf, who became a key ally of the US after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is struggling to contain an upsurge in violence by Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.

In the latest attack, a bomb exploded outside a hotel in the northern city of Swat yesterday, killing one police officer and wounding four hotel guards, police said.
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