BYE-BYE BUSHARRAF-- PAKISTANI VOTERS OBLITERATE MUSHARRAF'S POLITICAL PARTY

Sometimes you can't plausibly steal an election unless it's close. Bush came close and his team moved in for the kill in 2000 and again in 2004. In 2006 all Al Wynn had to do was show up with a couple of stuffed ballot boxes the morning after and he was "re-elected;" this year Donna Edwards was slaughtering him so badly from the first precincts counted that it just couldn't be done.

I was surprised last night to read that Musharraf's party was devastated at the polls in Pakistan yesterday. We all read how the fix was in and the election would be stolen. Apparently, the defeat was so massive that there was nothing they could do short of declaring martial law again-- and we'll have to wait and see what transpires later in the week on that front. Musharraf once joked with John King on the Daily Show that Bush wouldn't be elected mayor of Karachi-- even if his opponent was Osama bin-Laden. The joke was on Musharraf, who was so closely identified with the detested Bush, that Pakistanis symbolically did what everyone in the world wants to do-- give Bush a big thumbs down-- by voting against Musharraf, often referred to in Pakistan as Busharraf.

Pakistanis dealt a crushing defeat to President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections on Monday, in what government and opposition politicians said was a firm rejection of his policies since 2001 and those of his close ally, the United States.

Almost all the leading figures in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the party that has governed for the last five years under Mr. Musharraf, lost their seats, including the leader of the party, the former speaker of Parliament and six ministers.

Official results are expected Tuesday, but early returns indicated that the vote would usher in a prime minister from one of the opposition parties, and opened the prospect of a Parliament that would move to undo many of Mr. Musharraf’s policies and that may even try to remove him.

Early results showed equal gains for the Pakistan Peoples Party, whose leader, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated on Dec. 27, and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the faction led by Nawaz Sharif, like Ms. Bhutto a former prime minister. Each party may be in a position to form the next government.

Unofficial results show the Pakistan Peoples Party with 110 seats, Sharif's party with around 100 seats and Musharrif's Muslim League-Q holding on to between 20 and 30 in the 272 National Assembly. The religionist nut parties in some of the backward areas of the country also suffered at the polls. Demands for Musharraf to step down have already begun and are expected to accelerate in coming days.