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Bhutto's Party Holds Big Lead in Survey

Posted Feb 11, 08 10:16 AM CST in World 

(Newser) – Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People’s Party holds a solid lead going into next week’s elections, according to a poll commissioned by a US organization associated with members of the 9/11 commission. Some 37% of Pakistanis surveyed said they would support the secular PPP, to 12% for Pervez Musharraf’s Muslim party. The party of Nawaz Sharif, the other ex-PM active in the opposition, came in second with 25%.

The PPP’s lead is not decisive, reports the Press Association, because Pakistan’s winner-takes-all electoral system rewards local victories, and the PPP depends on broad support across the entire country. Support for Islamic extremists, including Osama bin Laden, is down from 46% in August to 24%. The poll suggests that Pakistanis are increasingly wary of religious-based government, the Dawn newspaper reports.

Sources Press Association, Dawn (Pakistan)

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Pakistani men and women wait for the bus at a station covered with election posters in central Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008. Pakistan's parliamentary elections were postponed after the...   (Associated Press)
Posters of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif lay side by side on a table at a market shop in central Lahore, Pakistan, Tuesday, February 5, 2008. Pakistan's parliamentary elections...   (Associated Press)
Asif Ali Zardari, husband of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto shouts "long live Bhutto" slogans during an election campaign rally in Thatta, Pakistan on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008. (AP Photo/Shakil...   (Associated Press)
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