Small plurality of Pakistanis support Bhutto

The throngs of supporters that surrounded Benazir Bhutto’s motorcade in Karachi before Thursday’s bomb attack demonstrated that the former prime minister still enjoys a good amount of support in Pakistan. The results of a poll just released by WorldPublicOpinion.org and taken in the weeks before her return would seem to bear this out. Half of the Pakistanis questioned supported Bhutto being allowed to return to stand for election. Former PM Nawaz Sharif had roughly the same amount of support. (Sharif was deported to Saudi Arabia after trying to return in early September.)

Bhutto came out on top narrowly when Pakistanis were asked who they thought should lead the country. She polled at 27 percent, with Sharif and current leader Pervez Musharraf tied at 21 percent. With a 3.3 percent margin of error, this is hardly a mandate. Still, it makes the 98 percent of the vote that Musharraf received in the recent presidential election seem even more ridiculous.