NDTV

Islamabad, Oct 7: General Pervez Musharraf swept the presidential elections held in Pakistan on Saturday. He must however wait for the Supreme Court to confirm the legality of his bid before being declared the winner.

"Democracy means majority, right? Whether it is opposition or no opposition, democracy means majority. When the majority votes for something that is the rule of the day and that is democracy. Now at the moment I think that 54 or 55 per cent of all the Senate, National Assembly, provincial assemblies have voted for me,'' said Pervez Musharraf, President, Pakistan.

Musharraf's government made a clean sweep by an incredible 252 of 257 votes cast. His closest rival, the anti-government lawyers candidate Wajihuddin Ahmed, won only two votes.

He urged the opposition to accept the outcome of the election and not destabilise the country.

"I bow my head in front of God almighty for giving me such a great victory. I have appealed to the nation towards a conciliatory approach. I have appealed to the people of Pakistan, not to join, to reject any calls for strikes. I have appealed to the lawyers to let sanity prevail, they are all educated people. I hope in for justice, and for peace,'' said

The Chief Election Commissioner made the announcement at a national assembly after a very peculiar election where over 200 opposition MPs resigned in protest. The government though seemed unfazed.

"I think all of this is being done in a very transparent manner. It is a victory for democracy in Pakistan and victory for rule of law. People were cribbing about the uniform of General Musharraf, as I said before that we shall soon see the peaceful democratic transformation of General Musharraf into Mr Musharraf,'' said Mushaid Hussain Syed, General Secretary, PML(Q).

Whether Musharraf is actually a winner will be ruled by the Supreme Court, which says it must first decide whether he was eligible to stand in uniform.

Musharraf faced another setback as Benazir Bhutto's party, the PPP, which cut a deal with the General, walked out at the last minute.

"PPP even when it was in dialogue with the government always had the stance that we need to have fresh general elections before election for the President. However it was left up to them to get a clearance from the courts, because General Musharraf's position is that he is qualified, but we had never committed to either vote for him or be part of this process and therefore it was no breach,'' said Syed Naveed Qamar, Minister of National Assembly, PPP.

It is believed that Musharraf also swept the four provincial assemblies.