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ISLAMABAD : Pakistani lawmakers began voting Saturday in a presidential election that Pervez Musharraf is set to win despite a court ruling that delays the declaration of a result and could yet deny him victory.
Musharraf, who seized control of the world's only nuclear-armed Islamic nation in a 1999 coup, is assured of the votes he needs for another five year-term in the two chambers of parliament and four provincial assemblies.
The embattled general had hoped for a smooth vote before his plan to restore democratic civilian rule to a perpetually volatile country of 160 million people that is at the epicentre of the United States' "war on terror."
But the court said Friday that while the vote could go ahead as planned, no result can be announced until at least October 17 when it has resolved appeals against his eligibility and on the legality of the election.
The ruling means Musharraf could have his win snatched from him weeks after the poll - a move that would raise doubts about his future, heighten instability and possibly push him into declaring martial law.
"Let the polling begin," chief election commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq told MPs in the federal parliament in Islamabad as they began placing votes into a small transparent plastic box.
Voting is by secret ballot and will end at 3:00pm (1000 GMT).
The government insisted Musharraf would be entitled to claim victory.
"We are all geared up. We will win the election...there is no doubt about it," Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem told AFP.
"It will be good for the country and we will be well on the road to a smooth transition to a full democratic dispensation."
Musharraf bolstered his position on Friday by giving exiled former premier Benazir Bhutto an amnesty on graft charges.
The move stopped her pulling her MPs from parliament and paves the way for a power-sharing deal ahead of her homecoming on October 18.
Musharraf has two rivals in the vote, neither of whom have any hope of winning: Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the vice-chairman of Bhutto's party, and former judge Wajihuddin Ahmad, who refused to swear allegiance to him after his coup. - AFP/ch
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