Pakistan opposition takes big lead in voting

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan opposition parties took commanding leads in unofficial returns early Tuesday in parliamentary elections, heading toward a victory that could challenge President Pervez Musharraf's rule eight years after seizing power in a military coup.

Monday's balloting was aimed at bolstering democracy and ending a yearlong political crisis, but fear and apathy kept millions of voters at home.

The government confirmed 24 election-related deaths over the past 36 hours. But the country was spared the type of Islamic militant violence that scarred the campaign -- most notably the assassination of the charismatic opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto.

State-run television early Tuesday gave the two main opposition parties strong leads in early unofficial tallies, a trend conceded by the president's Pakistan Muslim League-Q party. Final official results were not expected before Wednesday.

"As far as we are concerned, we will be willing to sit on opposition benches if final results prove that we have lost. This is the trend," party spokesman Tariq Azeem said.

If the vote pattern continues, it will ease concerns that lack of a clear winner could result in a government too fragmented to rally the nation against Islamic extremists.

Early Tuesday, state-run Pakistan TV said unofficial tallies were complete for 115 of the 268 parliament seats being contested. It gave former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N and Bhutto's party nearly 70 percent of the vote. The pro-Musharraf PML-Q was third.