AFP: Pakistanis dismayed by election delay 03 January

REFILE OF DOPESHEET WITH NAME OF JUDGE'S WIFE:At least 14 people were killed and nearly 100 injured in election-related violence across Pakistan, officials said Monday. Nine of the deaths came on election day itself while five died in a shooting on the eve of polling in the country's political hub Lahore, the capital of populous Punjab province, they said. As Pakistan goes to the ballot box in critical parliamentary elections, the fate of key US ally President Pervez Musharraf hangs in the balance. An AFPTV report.

The commission's spokesman says it's looking likely that parliamentary elections will be postponed but a final decision won't be made for another day. The campaign was thrown into doubt by the last Thursday's (December 27) assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and the violence that's followed.

Pakistan has postponed general elections until February 18 following the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a move grudgingly accepted by the country's major parties. Bhutto's party and others condemned the delay but election officials said holding the vote next week was impossible due to the widespread unrest after her killing, which left dozens of people dead. Images and soundbites.

The delay of some 36 hours also brought security into the streets of the capital Harare and other cities. The country's ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are so far running neck-and-neck. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has lost his seat, east of Harare.

Fears of violence keep many away from the polls with 80,000 troops backing police to watch over a vote that could return a parliament set on driving President Pervez Musharraf from power.

A last-ditch session by Lebanon's parliament to elect a president Friday -- the deadline to replace head of state Emile Lahoud -- has been postponed, an MP with the ruling majority said Thursday. The Western-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition are bitterly divided over the choice of a new president, paralysing the country. An AFPTV report.

Spaniards are voting in elections Sunday expected to hand Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero a new mandate to pursue sweeping social reforms. But the country is still reeling from a political assassination blamed by the government on Basque separatists.

Spaniards voted Sunday in high numbers with the ruling Socialists tipped to win a new mandate for sweeping social reforms after a campaign cut short by the murder of a former Basque politician. The last opinion polls published in Spain on Monday gave Prime Minister Jose Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist Party a lead of about four percentage points over the conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) led by Mariano Rajoy, who cast his ballot Sunday.

No party looks set to win outright which would lead to negotiations over a coalition. If opposition parties won three fifths of the lower house's seats they would be able to nullify the veto by the president, who does not face an election until 2010.