Vote at your own risk

People finally cast their votes in the repeatedly delayed and literally explosive Pakistani election. Despite a dismal turnout, it seems Pervez Musharraf’s party got trounced by the party of Benazir Bhutto. It also seems to be a good election for the Pakistan Muslim League-N whose leader ran on the promise of restoring the country’s ousted supreme court justice. Of course there were some problems with voters’ names missing from the rolls and an attempt to steal ballots. And apparently, some of the government election officials came to the polling sites hammered. This election was seen as much a referendum on President Bush as it was Musharraf. Final results won’t be available for days, but one can hope that despite the violence and problems, democracy might finally be restored to what at least one news source has called “the most dangerous country in the world.”