Pakistan’s general election results have been delayed as early trends showed Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) inching towards majority on Thursday morning. While opponents have alleged “blatant” rigging of the election, the Chief Election Commissioner attributed the delay to a new system- Results Transmission System – introduced by it.
According to Dawn, Imran Khan‘s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was leading on 119 seats followed by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N on 65. Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party was leading on 44 National Assembly seats. In the directly contested 272 seats in Pakistan’s Parliament, 137 is the halfway mark for a simple majority.
Millions of Pakistanis voted on Wednesday to elect a new government and prime minister in a tense election marred by allegations of military interference and a series of deadly attacks. Up to 8 lakh police and military forces were stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country as the voting took place. Wednesday’s election was only the second democratic transition of power in Pakistan’s 70-year coup-studded history. Pakistan is a country of approximately 207 million people, out of which the number of registered voters are about 106 million.
