Millions of Pakistanis flocked to polling stations on Wednesday to elect the next government. At least 31 people were killed in a suicide attack in western city of Quetta near a polling station.
Preliminary, unofficial results suggest ex-cricket star Imran Khan’s PTI party is in the lead as votes are counted. However, the rival party of disgraced former PM Nawaz Sharif, PML-N, has rejected the results amid allegations of vote rigging.
Pakistan has been ruled on and off by the military during its 71-year history. This election is significant because it will mark only the second time that one civilian government has handed power to another after serving a full term.
Vote counting was under way in key Pakistan parliamentary and provincial elections marred by violence, but the first official result has yet to be announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan 12 hours after voting ended.
As many as 800,000 police and military forces were deployed across 85,000 polling stations in elections that will see the second civilian-to-civilian handover of power in the country’s history.
“The mandate of millions of people who came out to vote has been humiliated. Our democratic process has been pushed back by decades,” said Sharif.
Bilawal Bhutto, the leader of the liberal Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – the country’s third-largest party tweeted it was “inexcusable and outrageous” that his activists had been excluded “across the country”
Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the PML-N party and brother of ex-PM Nawaz Sharif, said the vote counting process was “unbearable and unacceptable” due to “manifest and massive irregularities”.
Mr Sharif, who won the last election, has been jailed for corruption after a scandal stemming from the Panama Papers leak. Mr Khan has vowed to tackle corruption but his rivals accuse him of benefiting from alleged meddling by the military, which has ruled Pakistan for nearly half of its history.
“There’s no conspiracy, nor any pressure in delay of the results,” Babar Yaqoob, secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan, told reporters on Thursday. “The delay is being caused because the result transmission system has collapsed.”
>Juthy Saha
Pakistan Election 2018
Will You Support Our Work?
People turns to WhatsOn to understand what's goingOn? We have been empowering through hope & understanding for the last forty years. We’re an independent social enterprise & our journalism is powered by our supporters. Financial contributions from our readers allows us to keep our journalism free for all & to change the world for better. Please support us, with your donation - no matter how small. Your donation makes a real difference, it empowers our activist & academy, and engages wider community groups, & universities - connecting more people. WhatsOn is a change maker, let’s get our future back together!
