Pakistan Election: Imran Khan-backed independents lead in final count

According to the website of the electoral commission, independent candidates, who were mostly supported by the imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, won 101 of the 264 seats in Sunday’s national election in Pakistan.

The national elections on Thursday ended more than sixty hours before the final count was made public, a delay that sparked concerns about the procedure.

Since Khan’s independents campaigned as individuals, they outperformed the party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, which garnered 75 seats and became the largest single party in parliament.

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Sharif stated that after failing to secure a certain majority on its own, his party is in talks with other parties to create a coalition administration.

A few minor protests occurred overnight after Khan’s PTI party promised to stage peaceful nationwide demonstrations on Sunday if the vote total was not made public during the night.

The temporary administration of Pakistan claims that a mobile internet outage on election day produced communication problems, which is what prompted the delay. Rights organizations and international governments, including the US government, expressed worry over the interruption, which the authorities claimed was due to security concerns.

A PTI party secretary called off nationwide protests in a post on the social media site X on Sunday, but she suggested there should be rallies at specific polling places where they were worried about “forged” results.

Khan’s PTI party was linked to about 93 of the independent candidates who were successful in winning seats.

Because they had broken electoral laws and were therefore prohibited by the election commission from competing for office under the electoral symbol of their party, Khan’s supporters were running as independents.

Millions of Khan’s fans turned out to vote for him in spite of the ban and his incarceration for convictions stemming from charges of corruption, illicit marriage, and state secret leaks. Khan is prohibited from serving in any government while he is incarcerated.

The ineligibility to get any of the 70 reserved seats in parliament, which are allotted based on party strength in the final tally, is one of the disadvantages the independents have when attempting to form a government. Up to 20 of these seats could go to Sharif’s party.

The electoral commission had already noted that results for two seats could not yet be included: one seat required a polling postponement due to the death of a candidate, and another seat would not have its polling finished until later this month.