Up to Pakistan to decide on elections: White House
Foreign Desk Report

CRAWFORD (Texas)—The White House Saturday declined to comment on any delay of Pakistan’s elections after the death of Benazir Bhutto, and urged Islamabad to thoroughly investigate her killing.
“The elections should be free and fair and parties and candidates should be able to conduct an election in an open way,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. “But as for the timing, this will be something that the Pakistani authorities will have to determine.”
Asked about concerns by groups inside Pakistan that the government of President Pervez Musharraf did not fully investigate Bhutto’s death Thursday during a suicide attack at a campaign appearance, Fratto said the investigations needed to be “thorough.”
“The investigation is ongoing. The government of Pakistan has a responsibility to ensure that the investigation is thorough and that the citizens have confidence in the results of the investigation.”
He added the United States has not received any request to help in the investigation following the death of the Pakistani opposition leader.
“We haven’t received any request for assistance. If we do, we will certainly consider them,” Fratto said by telephone, refusing also to comment on a call from Democratic Party hopeful Hillary Clinton for a international investigation into Bhutto’s death.
Pakistan indicated Saturday it would delay the elections set for January 8 because of the turmoil triggered by Bhutto’s death. The crisis-hit country’s election commission said it would hold an urgent meeting on Monday to decide the vote’s fate. Fratto said: “The Pakistanis are going to have to make their decision based on the conditions following her death.”
The United States said it is in close contact with Pakistani political parties and allies to keep Pakistan on the path to democracy after opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
The US State Department’s number three, Nicholas Burns, and the assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, Richard Boucher, have consulted allies including Britain, Canada, France and Russia, said spokesman Tom Casey.
“We’re all interested in seeing that, in light of this tragic incident, that things still are able to move forward and that Pakistan is able to continue down a democratic path,” Casey told reporters.
Concerns rose for security in Pakistan after the former premier, a popular opposition leader, was killed in a suicide bombing Thursday as she campaigned for next month’s elections.
“Both our embassy in Islamabad, as well as our various consulates in the country have been keeping in close touch with representatives of the broad political spectrum in Pakistan,” Casey said. These include representatives of Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and parties backing President Pervez Musharraf and another key political rival, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, he added.
“We believe it’s important that the political process, the process of developing Pakistan’s democracy continue,” he added, echoing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who on Friday hailed Bhutto as a “champion for democracy.”
“The way to honor her memory is to continue the democratic process in Pakistan so that the democracy that she so hoped for can emerge,” Rice said, after signing a book of condolence at Pakistan’s embassy in Washington. She did not comment on whether the vote should still be held on January 8 as scheduled.
“We are in contact with people in Pakistan, all of the parties,” she said. “But obviously, it’s just very important that the democratic process go forward.” Casey meanwhile did not insist, as he had Thursday, on clinging to the January 8 schedule, saying he did not consider it a “magic” date on which the vote must be held.
“If an election can be held smoothly and safely on January 8, as currently scheduled, then by all means it should move forward,” he said. “If political parties and actors in the country come to some different conclusion, then certainly we’ll take a look at it then.”