PPP, PML-N eye coalition government after election

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) mulled the formation of a coalition government on Wednesday, after storming to victory in elections and leaving President Pervez Musharraf’s position in jeopardy.
PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and the PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari both said they wanted to work with other opposition groups after Monday’s elections. Sharif urged President Musharraf to quit, while Asif Ali Zardari said he would not work with anyone associated with the party that backed Musharraf in the last parliament, which suffered a stinging defeat.
The pair are set to meet in Islamabad on Thursday but both parties are due to hold meetings of their central executive committees on Wednesday, with contacts between the sides expected.
Election commission secretary Kanwar Dilshad said the official results of the vote were set to be announced on Wednesday after the final handful of constituencies were tallied up. With votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituencies, the PPP and PML-N had a combined total of 153 seats, the commission said. The former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and its allies together had 58.
Results also showed a near total defeat for religious parties that under the previous administration ruled Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
A European Union team which monitored the vote was set to deliver its report on Wednesday, although the opposition allegations of rigging that marked the run-up to the polls have been absent since.
The White House said the elections were “largely fair.” “I think that what we can say is that they seem to have been largely fair and that people were able to express themselves, and that they can have confidence in their vote,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said as President George W. Bush arrived in Ghana on Tuesday on the fourth stop on his African tour.
The State Department said Pakistan had taken a “step towards the full restoration of democracy.” UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was encouraged by the “commitment of all parties concerned to respect the democratic process,” his press office said.
A hostile parliament threatens the political survival of Musharraf, who could theoretically face impeachment if the opposition gets a two-thirds majority.
Analysts said Musharraf’s most likely strategy would be to woo PPP and split it from PML-N by preying on the one-time rift between the martyred former premier Benazir and Nawaz Sharif.