Voting in Pakistan’s election ended on Thursday, and although votes were still being counted on Friday, early results showed that Islamist former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was shown to be in the lead.
The tally was a remarkable achievement, given that Mr. Khan has been imprisoned for 10 years and exiled from politics, and that the PTI has been largely erased from the ballot paper.
The election situation was unclear as many PTI candidates ran as independents after the party’s name and symbol changed. Banned From court-ordered ballots in January. The loss of the symbol, a cricket bat honoring Khan’s days as a star player, is particularly shocking because Pakistan’s functionally illiterate rural voters use symbols to find their preferred candidates on ballots. It was a target.
As of Friday afternoon, independent and PTI-backed candidates remained in the lead with 97 parliamentary victories, followed by the centre-right Pakistan Islamic League (PMLN) with 66 and the left-wing Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). followed by 51. Final results are expected to be announced Friday night.
Al Jazeera News report Rumors swirled on the streets of Lahore that the vote had been rigged and that people would be furious enough to riot if they realized their ballots had not been counted correctly. Two deaths have already been reported in election-related violence in northwest Pakistan.
Britain’s election watchdog said there were serious concerns about the election’s “lack of fairness and inclusiveness,” including internet blackouts, irregularities in voting reporting, and “legal procedures” deployed to prevent some candidates from taking part. “I have serious concerns,” he said.
PTI leader predicted Although it was a landslide victory when all the votes were counted, PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif was similarly confident that his party would hold the most seats once the situation was settled.
“Today we are all celebrating, because this election has made the PML-N the largest party in the country,” Sharif declared in his seemingly premature victory speech.
Sharif said he asked his brother Shehbaz, who was prime minister before becoming prime minister. I retired In August, he will contact leaders of the PPP and several other political parties to begin forming a coalition government.
“We do not have a sufficient majority to form a government without the support of other countries. We call on our allies to join the coalition so that we can make a joint effort to get Pakistan out of trouble,” he said. Said.
Nawaz Sharif (74) provided He has served as prime minister for the past three terms and is likely to become the PML-N’s candidate again if he can gather enough votes to form a coalition government.
Imran Khan also released a “victory speech” on Friday, which he posted on his Twitter account.
Chairman Imran Khan’s victory speech (AI version) after the people’s unprecedented counterattack that led to PTI’s landslide victory in the 2024 general elections. pic.twitter.com/Z6GiLwCVCR
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) February 9, 2024
Khan’s speech was Created This is because he is legally prohibited from making political speeches under the terms of his prison sentence. He has previously approved scripts in which a computer simulation of his face and voice is read out.
In his speech, Khan said: Said The massive turnout of PTI supporters “shocked everyone” — and he strongly implied that if PTI was not declared the winner of the election, it would have been stolen through fraud. .
Mr Khan dismissed Mr Sharif as a “boring man” and claimed that if Mr Sharif was somehow declared the winner of the election, “Pakistan will not accept him”. He claimed that even the international media was ridiculing the “foolishness” of the PML-N’s claim that it won a majority of votes.
“Dear Pakistanis, you have made history. I am proud of you and thank Allah for uniting the country. Now no one can stop us.” he boasted.
Khan urged PTI supporters to “celebrate and be thankful to Allah” as “despite two years of repression and injustice, we won the election with a two-thirds majority”. I advised.
“Everyone saw the strength of your vote. Get ready to defend your vote now,” he concluded ominously.
PTI voters a riot broke out Mr Khan’s arrest in May has caused widespread devastation across the country, leaving at least six people dead and large amounts of property destroyed, including property owned by Pakistan’s powerful military establishment. The riot was one of the main reasons for Khan’s expulsion from politics, and his party suffered a significant electoral disadvantage.
This was announced by PTI officials. statement On Friday, he congratulated voters who turned out to vote despite “significant interference” and “pre-election manipulation” from the government.
The statement said that although PTI candidates had a “convincing lead in several constituencies,” “significant delays in the declaration of final results” were preventing victory from being confirmed, and that voter fraud was ongoing. He said this may indicate something.
PTI leaders dismissed Nawaz Sharif as a “failure to escape” who returned to Pakistan under the “protection” of the military and foreign powers, and said any final tally that did not result in PTI victory would be “fabricated”. insisted. They also said that one of the first tasks of the new “democratically elected government” would be to release Mr. Khan from prison and appoint him prime minister.
