By Augustine Anthony
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pervez Musharraf's opponents said onTuesday they would try to form a coalition, after winning anelection that cast doubt over how long the U.S.-alliedPakistani president can stay in power.
Washington said it welcomed the poll as a step towards fulldemocracy and hoped a new government could work with Musharraf,considered a bulwark against al Qaeda in its "war on terror".
A wave of sympathy helped the Pakistan People's Party ofassassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto emerge as thelargest party in the 342-seat National Assembly, although itfailed to win a majority.
A hostile parliament could seek to oust Musharraf, who cameto power in a coup in 1999 and is accused of violating theconstitution when he imposed six weeks of emergency rule inNovember to secure five more years as president.
Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower, said the PPP had theright to form a coalition government, adding there would be noplace in it for the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (PML).
"As the largest political force of the country, we demandthat we be allowed to make the government," he told a newsconference in Islamabad.
"For now, the decision of the party is that we are notinterested in any of those people who are part and parcel ofthe last government," Zardari said, appearing to leave open theoption of changing his mind later.
Zardari, who took over the leadership of the PPP afterBhutto's death, said he would try to persuade Nawaz Sharif, theprime minister Musharraf overthrew, to join a coalition.
Speaking at a news conference in Lahore, Sharif urgedMusharraf to accept he was no longer wanted.
"DICTATORSHIP"
"He would say, when people would want, I will go. Today thepeople have said what they want," Sharif said after his partyran a close second in Monday's polls.
He said he planned to meet Zardari on Thursday. "I inviteall to sit together and free Pakistan of dictatorship," saidSharif, who returned from exile in November.
Bhutto's assassination in a suicide attack on December 27heightened concern about the stability of the nuclear-armedMuslim state, where al Qaeda leaders have taken refuge.
Musharraf, a crucial U.S. ally in a "war on terror" mostPakistanis think is Washington's, not theirs, has seen hispopularity plummet in the last year as he reeled from onepolitical crisis to another.
"It is certainly clear that Pakistan has taken a steptoward the full restoration of democracy," a U.S. StateDepartment spokesman said. "Certainly we would want theelection results to be respected by all parties."
He added: "We certainly would hope that whoever becomesprime minister, and whoever winds up in charge of the newgovernment, would be able to work with him (Musharraf) and towork with all other factions."
Groups of opposition supporters celebrated in the streetsacross the country as results rolled out.
But many Pakistanis are unconvinced by politiciansassociated with corrupt, inefficient governments of the 1990s.
"The promises that have been made by Nawaz Sharif andPeople's Party should now be fulfilled and they should dosomething for the country and not for themselves," saidMohammed Arif, sitting in his pharmacy in Karachi.
The pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League trailed a distantthird. The party's spokesman conceded defeat after the voters'verdict but kept alive chances of joining a coalition.
"They have rejected our policies and we have accepted theirverdict," PML's Tariq Azim Khan told Reuters, adding: "We'rewilling to cooperate and work with anybody."
LOW TURNOUT, LOW VIOLENCE
Counting was continuing, with results still awaited infewer than 20 seats, but no party could win a majority.
As of 8.45 p.m. (1545 GMT), unofficial results for 261seats showed Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had won 87and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) had 67.
The pro-Musharraf PML trailed with 38. Small parties andindependents shared the others.
A few seats were not contested, while 70 reserved for womenand religious minorities will be divided up proportionatelyamong parties according to the number of votes they won.
Musharraf has said he will accept the results and work withthe winners to build democracy in a country that has alternatedbetween civilian and army rule throughout its 60-year history.
Relief at the absence of serious vote-rigging andrelatively low levels of violence helped Pakistan's main stockmarket gain more than 3 percent. At least 20 people werekilled, but that was not as bad as feared after a bloodyelection campaign.
An election watchdog group put turnout at 35 percent.
A secular ethnic Pashtun nationalist party was winning inNorth West Frontier Province. Islamist parties which won in2002 were trounced, as moderate forces re-established theirinfluence over the region of Pakistan most prone to militancy.
(To read more about the Pakistan election, double-click onthe link and visit the Reuters blog "Pakistan: Now or Never?"at http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/)
(Additional reporting by Augustine Anthony and Sahar Ahmedin Karachi; writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; editing by AndrewRoche)