Islami boycotting the election, some percentage of the right-of-centre vote in the urban areas has also gone to the PMLN. That, again, is not unprecedented.

Four, the Q-League candidates who have won mostly belong to the category of what are known as ‘electables’. For reasons of clan and kinship bonds as well as being scions of entrenched political families, these candidates are expected to win regardless of which party they belong to. However, given the drubbing the Q-League stalwarts have got, it appears that the voter had decided to bring down the core Q-League team of Musharraf’s.

Five, in punishing Musharraf, the voter has generally voted on the basis of party affiliation and ideological leaning. This shows that Musharraf’s policy of keeping both the major parties on the periphery and create a third political force — that is, the Q-League — did not succeed. However, this observation must be tempered by the political events since March 9, 2007 and the action of November 3 last year.

Six, the NWFP has shown that the voter was unhappy with the mullah rule in that province. The JI did not partake of the elections but the JUIF seems to have fallen victim to a perception that Fazlur Rahman is a politician who uses religion as a political device; moreover, that he is as profane in his ambition as any other politician. There is also a likelihood that the JI cadres voted against the JUIF candidates to teach Rahman a lesson. In any case, the anti-incumbency factor, vote split and the incline in the fortunes of the Awami National Party seem to have redounded to the JUIF’s disadvantage.

... contd.