ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 31 -- Up to nine million people voted in Pakistan Sunday in the first election since the military government seized power in a coup 14 months ago.
The local council elections in 18 of the country's 106 administrative districts are the first part of a promised timetable to return Pakistan to elected rule by October 2002.
The military government plans to devolve power from the center to the local bodies through these elections. It has barred political parties from participating to ensure that "the local bodies do not fall victim to Pakistan's corrupt party politics."
The government also introduced a radical reform package with these elections to increase women's participation in the electoral process. For the first time in the South Asian region, 33 percent seats have been reserved exclusively for women. Seats have also been reserved for non-Muslim minorities to ensure their participation.
The military pledged to follow the polls with provincial and then national elections within the next two years.
The showpiece vote was held under tight military supervision in 18 remote regions, but rain and the absence of political parties reduced turnout in some areas. Voting was brisk in the areas where political groups were indirectly backing candidates despite the ban.
Most women's activists have supported the move to reserve seats for women but say that without social reforms the real level of female participation in the vote remain doubtful, particularly in the male-dominated rural areas.
Political parties have criticized the ban on their participation.
"Elections without political parties are no elections," said a spokesman for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party. "It is the parties who bring the voters out."
But Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who toppled Prime Minister Sharif in October 1999, said he will first create local bodies for "devolution of power to the grassroots level and then hold party-based elections for the state and national legislatures."
Contradicting reports that people are taking no interest in the elections, Pakistan's Election Commission said 98 percent of the general seats for Muslim candidates would be contested, "which shows keen interest of the people in local government elections."
The Election Commission said that 21,890 candidates were running for 7,648 Muslim general seats on the 956 Union Councils at stake.
Despite Musharraf's assurance that the army would return to the barracks in two years, opposition parties said that the generals would use the local councils to bolster their rule.
The three other phases of voting for the local bodies are due to be completed by the end of June and the councils will convene in August.
