Islamabad, January 2: Pakistan's Election Commission on Wednesday announced February 18 as the new date for national polls, saying because of widespread violence and damage to election material offices polling was not possible as planned January 8. But both the major anti-establishment parties rejected the new dates as unacceptable to them.

"The elections will be held now on Feb 18 instead of Jan 8," Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq announced at a crowded press conference.

The opposition parties - Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) - immediately rejected the new election date, saying they would announce their future plans after mutual consultation.

Farooq said the decision has been taken after consultation with the provincial governments and election officials based in provinces and districts. He said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) received requests from all the four provinces to postpone the elections. He said that the ECP also held "informal" consultations with political parties.

Refusing to give names of the political parties, Farooq said, "we are keeping names confidential as these were informal consultations, and we cannot disclose their names."

He said the decision was taken in view of the huge damage caused to the election offices in at least 13 districts where the election material and offices of returning officers were completely gutted in protests following last week's assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

He, however, assured a questioner that the elections will not be delayed any further. He said, "we have delayed these elections under a compulsion because of the situation after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto."

He said Feb 18 was fixed because of the Muslim mourning month of Muharram that was to start Jan 8. He said this will give enough time to the Election Commission and political parties to prepare for the polls.

He said that the ECP looked at every possibility to conduct the polls as planned on Jan 8 but it is impossible to conduct polls and provide election material where it was set on fire or was damaged otherwise.

He said that due to strike and national mourning called by the government the printing of ballot papers came to a halt as the workers could not reach the printing presses.

Babar Awan of the PPP said that the new date was unacceptable to his party and "we will announce our future plan after a party meeting that may be held early Thursday morning."

Ahsan Iqbal of the PML-N also rejected the new date, saying this was only to rig the elections and to bring the cronies of President Pervez Musharraf to power. "We reject the new date, this is a step to ensure rigging to bring PML-Q into power," Iqbal told a news agency.

However, the former ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) welcomed the new date. "We welcome this decision that has been taken keeping in view the ground relaties and to ensure fair and transparent election," PML-Q spokesman Tariq Azim confirmed to a news agency. He said that everyone knows that law and order situation is not conducive for the elections.