Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) named her son and husband yesterday to succeed the slain opposition leader but doubts grew about whether a January 8 poll aiming to transform Pakistan from military rule would go ahead.
A former ruling party official said the election in nuclear-armed Pakistan, a key US ally against terrorism, was likely to be delayed for up to two months but Mrs Bhutto's party vowed to take part and another party said it probably would too.
Mrs Bhutto's assassination in a bloody suicide attack last Thursday stoked sporadic violence across the country and deep anger against President Pervez Musharraf, casting doubt about Pakistan's stability and its transition to civilian rule.
"Despite this dangerous situation, we will go for elections, according to her will and thinking," said Mrs Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari, made co-chairman of the PPP party with their son Bilawal, 19, from the Bhutto home in Naudero, southern Pakistan.
Pakistan's stocks are expected to tumble today due to political turmoil and violence, which threaten to scare off foreign investors and damage the economy.
A promising investment story less than a year ago, Pakistan is now gripped by fears of capital flight if security worsens. The death toll from violence since Mrs Bhutto's killing has reached 47.
Pakistan's Election Commission, which will decide on whether the January 8 election takes place, meets today, and a senior official of the former ruling party that backs President Musharraf said: "It seems more than likely that elections will be delayed."
But the party of Pakistani opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, who like Mrs Bhutto is a former Prime Minister, said it was likely to abandon plans to boycott the poll after the PPP decision.
"It is likely that the party will take part," said Ahsan Iqbal, a spokesman for Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League.
"If they (PPP) don't mind contesting elections after Benazir Bhutto's assassination, then there is no point in our boycotting general elections," he said.
Although US President George W. Bush has urged Pakistanis to hold the vote, a White House spokesman said it was up to Pakistan's authorities to determine the timing.
Mr Zardari said he was not running in the election and would not be a candidate for Prime Minister but mentioned party vice chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim as a possible candidate.
He also rejected a government explanation that his wife was killed when the force of an explosion that engulfed her bullet-proof car smashed her head into a lever on the sunroof as she ducked down when shots were fired.
Her party says she was shot to death and Mr Zardari said he wanted the United Nations to investigate along the lines of the commission set up to investigate the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
A Pakistani television channel broadcast on Sunday grainy still pictures of what it said appeared to be two men who attacked and killed Mrs Bhutto, one firing a pistol.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, an Oxford law student who is now heir to the country's most powerful political dynasty, said:
"While I am at university... my father will take care of the party. When I return, I promise to lead the party as my mother wanted me to." His father then stopped reporters from asking further questions.
Mrs Bhutto had hoped to win power for a third time in the January vote though analysts expected a three-way split between her, Mr Sharif's party and the party that backs Mr Musharraf.
Mrs Bhutto's PPP can expect to pick up a sympathy vote after her killing and its core support would remain for now, even though her son Bilawal would return to Oxford and the fact that her husband Mr Zardari, like her, was tainted by corruption accusations, analysts said.
"It will retain support in the short term but obviously, in the long term they'll have to earn their spurs and demonstrate leadership," said former minister and analyst Shafqat Mahmood.
But the choice of Mrs Bhutto's son and husband to lead the party raised eyebrows among some Pakistanis.
"Benazir Bhutto was a great Bhutto but the son needs grooming for another five to six years. He is a child," said Ferooz Menon, 37, who has an electronics business in Lahore.
Many PPP leaders are from Mrs Bhutto land-owning feudal class, yet the party has a big following among the poor.
Karachi, Pakistan's biggest city, financial capital and main port, has been paralysed by street violence but was generally quiet yesterday. Shops have been shuttered, petrol stations closed and railways attacked by angry mobs.
Washington had encouraged Mrs Bhutto, relatively liberal by Pakistan's standards and an opponent of Islamic militancy.
She returned home from self-imposed exile in October, hoping to become prime minister for the third time.
Her death wrecked U.S. hopes of a power-sharing deal between her and Musharraf, who took power in a military coup in 1999 but left the army last month to become a civilian president.
The PPP has said the government must also show hard evidence al Qaeda is to blame. The accused al Qaeda-linked militants have denied any role, although others issued threats against Bhutto when she returned in October. A suicide attack on her motorcade then killed at least 139 people.