Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf must wait at least 10 days for a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of his re-election but the court is unlikely to annul his sweeping victory, analysts said today.
As expected, Musharraf won almost all the votes in a presidential election, largely boycotted by the opposition, in parliament and the four provincial assemblies yesterday.
The official result has been postponed until the Supreme Court rules on challenges by the opposition who say Gen Musharraf was ineligible to run while army chief even though he has promised to quit the military in weeks.
The opposition also objected to Gen Musharraf being re-elected by outgoing assemblies - where his coalition has a majority - just weeks before they are dismissed for a general election due by mid-January. The court will take up the case again on October 17th.
The outcome is of vital interest to the United States which wants to see Gen Musharraf maintain nuclear-armed Pakistan's support for its campaign in Afghanistan and tackle al-Qaeda.
"Although it's a controversial election, there are lots of problems with it, the parties have been protesting and so on, my guess is it would be very difficult for the Supreme Court to overturn it," said political analyst Shafqat Mahmood.
Another political analyst, Hassan Askari Rizvi: "The Supreme Court may be scared that the situation could go in any direction because they don't expect Musharraf to quit. Nobody in Pakistanexpects Musharraf to quit."