http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7251990.stm Even if the 2 main parties dont form a coalition it looks like he will lose all power. How will the new regime deal with the west? How will they deal with the troubled Afghan border region? Pakistan is certainly in for 'interesting times'
I think it's a mixed bag for the US, and a good deal for the Pakistani people. It was easier to deal with Musharref for the US, but at the same time his lack of popularity meant that his ability to project power into the Northwest territories such as Waziristan was severely diminished. Islamic groups gained a lot of local control there at the time. However, that's also been diminished by the backlash against the Bhutto assassination - Islamicist groups only gained 8 seats in the NW territory this time. Hopefully Pakistan will calm down entirely, and the moderates have more say. We aren't going to be getting OBL through the good graces of the Pakistani government any time soon, but the chances of the government failing have also been severely reduced.
The conservative northwest, where al-Qaeda and the Taliban had strong support, kicked out the religious extremists: Link
I was gonna start a thread on this. Fox News was reporting yesterday that he says he isn't going to step down.
Technically this wasn't an election about him specifically, since the election for President isn't for another few years. However given how much he has screwed with the system the technicalities are almost meaningless now so I will be very surprised if we don't in the near future see him standing down, being forced out, or pulling another coup.
