The left-wing Labour Party of Pakistan has polled well in the latest round of local elections, winning 21 councillors' positions in Lahore, Karachi and Rawalpindi, the country's largest cities, and garnering 29,000 votes across the country.
While Pakistan's military regime officially banned parties running in their own name, all the major parties did so anyway, under assumed names. The LPP's "Struggle Group" concentrated its attentions on local issues and opposition to continued military rule.
"Twenty-nine thousand votes for a socialist party in a society totally dominated by religious fundamentalists is not a bad start", commented LPP general secretary Farooq Tariq, noting that the councillors "will be our main leaders to campaign for a restoration of democracy".
The elections were the fourth round of local elections and were held in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi and 26 other districts on July 1.
The LPP also polled well in the previous three rounds. In the first round, the party won 12 councillors' positions in the southern Sindhi town of Larkana and one in the Punjab town of Liyya, while four more were elected from the town of Moro, in Sind, in the second round. In the third round, a panel of 21 party members narrowly lost in Hyderabad.
The final round of local elections will be held on August 1.
The local elections are an attempt by Pakistan's ruler, General Pervaiz Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup in October 1999, to build a stable support base for himself. It follows an established Pakistani military tradition: ban parties from running, then produce a new layer of officialdom at the local level tied to the regime.
Musharraf also attempted to placate criticism by international and domestic human rights groups by allocating designated seats in local councils to women, labourers and peasants. LPP candidates did particularly well in these seats.