White House stands by Musharraf

Q. Are you saying anything about Pakistan?
MS DANA PERINO: A little bit. Obviously, we are continuing to wait for final returns. We realise that the ruling party has conceded in the election. We had several interests going into this election that we’ve talked about.
One is that we’ve long advocated for President Musharraf to oversee elections that could give people confidence in their government. He was in a position to do that. And we asked him to try to get the country back on the road to democracy and it appears that he has done that with these elections.
We need to give the process a little bit of time to work, since we don’t have the final returns yet. However, we hope that the new government, once it’s formed - whatever form that process takes - at the end of the day we hope that they continue to help work with us as partners to counter terrorism.
The threat from extremists is just as grave and very immediate for the people of Pakistan, as evidenced by some of the violence there recently. And at the same time, we are going to continue to support the people of Pakistan through the aid that we are providing, which includes education support, reconstruction, the promotion and development of civil societies as they go through this transition period of a new government.
Q. Does the White House believe that the elections were free and fair?
MS DANA PERINO: 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.
And as I said, Musharraf’s party - President Musharraf’s party has conceded that they lost seats in the election. And I think now the next step on the path to democracy is establishing what that new government will look like.
Q. And what does the White House think that this does in terms of President Musharraf’s standing? Obviously, he’s considered an ally to President Bush. This election is seen as having weakened his clout. Does the White House see it the way?
MS DANA PERINO: Well, we’ll have to see. You know, in democracies you have situations sometimes where your party loses in the Parliament or in the Congress, as President Bush knows very well, since in 2006 the Republicans lost a majority in the House and the Senate.
And we’ve continued to work as a strong, functioning government - well, “functioning” might be a little strong. (Laughter) But all kidding aside, we continue to function as a government. And I think a country like Pakistan can get there.
I think what President Musharraf has shown is an ability to provide for the country a chance to be confident in their government and confident in their democracy enough that they can go ahead and concede that they have lost seats, but continue to work together for the good of the country.