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Michael reports from Islamabad during the final hours of voting. Not a lot of violence -- certainly less than most people expected -- but as Michael says, if the fix is in, it was in long before today. And the mere expectation of that may trigger violent reaction as the results are announced hours or days from now.(It's a pretty windy day there, they had to change mics between feeds.)[Note: there was a major technical glitch on my recording of the first clip, which I spent hours trying to fix before realizing the transfer/conversion failed in the same spot each time, no matter what I did... so I finally just bypassed it, which means the clips starts sort of mid-sentence as Kiran Chetry sets up the interview. All you're missing is about five more seconds of Musharraf casting his ballot.]
KIRAN
CHETRY: [Also
happening right now, Pakistan's national election.
Polls are expected to close in a short while, and we
have video just in within the last couple of hours.
There's President Pervez Musharraf casting his vote.
He has vowed to accept] the
results of the election which was delayed after the
assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto.
CNN's Michael Ware is live for us in Islamabad. And
Michael, how much are these election seen as a
referendum against President Musharraf?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, in many
ways, that's, in fact, what they are. The president
is deeply unpopular according to all the polls,
although of course President Musharraf dismisses
those results. Now, that's a direct result largely of
economic factors and day-to-day life. The price of
bread and flour has gone up six times in the past
year because of what people see as government
mismanagement.
People are also worried about security and the rule
of law. What we saw at the end of last year is
essentially what most people believe is President
Musharraf securing his third unconstitutional term in
parliament, by and large through a coup d'etat,
pouring the troops out onto the streets and gutting
the Supreme Court that may have challenged that
power.
Now in this election, though the president is not
running -- this is a parliamentary election -- he's
still fighting for his life because the opposition
parties, if they win and form a majority, if they get
two-thirds of the parliament, they could remove him.
So, yes, this is very much a referendum on the
president and he is in this for his life -- Kiran.
CHETRY: You know, of course, there were concerns
about violence. What did you see when you went out to
the polls today?
WARE: Well, we've been out and about in the twin
cities of Rawalpindi, the heartland of the Pakistani
military and one of the largest cities in the
country, and here in the capital itself, Islamabad.
Now, we personally witnessed no violence but already
today, we've had reports of five different bombing
attacks. Now, one of them was not near a polling
station. The rest were. One of those attacks was a
double attack.
First, an early morning explosion out on the frontier
at a polling station, drawing in the police whose
convoy was then hit by yet another blast. Now,
fortunately, no one was hurt in any of those
incidents. Yet overnight, we had the assassination of
a candidate in the city of Lahore, suspending voting
in that particular constituency. And today, a
firefight broke out between two rival parties,
resulting in the death of yet another person.
Meanwhile, we've had reports and allegations from
various parties that they're being denied access to
the polling booths or that their voters are being
harassed. But so far, nothing has been confirmed. By
and large, it's been relatively peaceful, and perhaps
like Iraq, we're seeing the militants hold off during
Election Day because that would be so deeply
unpopular. Yet, we're now into the last hour of
polling, and let's see what unfolds -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Michael Ware, we'll check in with you again
in the next hour. Thank you.
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KIRAN
CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, Election Day. Pakistan
finally votes. What today means for the war on terror
and the hunt for Bin Laden on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And thanks for joining us on this Monday. It's
February 18th. I'm Kiran Chetry. John Roberts is off
today.
At this hour polls should be closing in Pakistan. The
country's holding the national elections. They were
delayed, but they are now going on. New video this
morning of President Pervez Musharraf casting his own
vote. The election delayed after the assassination of
former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
CNN's Michael Ware is watching the elections this
morning. He joins us live from Islamabad. Musharraf
was promising free and fair elections. There are U.S.
lawmakers there to make sure that things that are
going okay. Have there been red flags raised already,
Michael?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's been
some complaints, Kiran, by various political parties,
some of the smaller ones that have been denied access
by their rivals to some of the polling stations.
There's been vague, really unconfirmed reports of
some ballots going missing. But by and large, no.
There's been no official or significant red flags put
up.
But you need to remember this, that if the fix is in,
it's already in. It's not about stuffing ballots or
making boxes disappear on today, the actual election
day. What the opposition parties have been saying is
that the rigging was done when the government put
people into provincial and local positions many
weeks, months ago. That's when they say that the fix
was put in.
Now, of course, the government denies that. And
American observers and international observers are
here, yet really only in a symbolic way because
they're not going to see anything. These people are
not that clumsy or foolish. Yet, nonetheless, as one
of the congresswomen here said to me, their presence
is nonetheless important in sending a message. If
these elections are not free and transparent, then
America will have a very serious response, said
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee -- Kiran.
CHETRY: And, you know, Musharraf, by the way, seen by
the administration as an ally on the war on terror.
So if he does lose his grip on power, which he could,
can the U.S. rely on any successor?
WARE: Well, that depends on who emerges, but by and
large, the answer is yes. Now, we've heard from
Pakistani commentators here on the ground, political
representatives, analysts, members of the
intelligence services and the military, and even
western military and intelligence services and,
indeed, some of the congressional delegates
themselves that, you know, it depends on who emerges.
America has relied far too much on one man, dumping
their eggs in one basket. We heard President Bush
refer to President Musharraf as indispensable. We
then saw Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pull
that back, saying the relationship between America is
with the Pakistani people. America cannot afford to
rely on one man who is seen as a dictator, who has
held on to power with his second coup d'etat in
November last year. So, yes, America will be working
with whomever remains president and whomever emerges
as prime minister -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Michael Ware for us in Islamabad this
morning. Thank you.