The final results of Pakistan’s national election have been released, showing that independents, supported by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, are leading with 93 out of 264 seats. The party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, came in second with 75 seats after Thursday’s vote. However, they lack a clear majority, making it unclear who will form the government as coalition talks begin and protesters block roads in the north of the country. The final vote tally was published by the election commission more than 60 hours after voting ended, raising concerns over the delay.
Both former prime ministers have declared victory, adding to the uncertainty as the country faces numerous urgent challenges, including negotiating a new International Monetary Fund programme to keep the struggling economy afloat.
The National Assembly requires a prime ministerial candidate to show a simple majority of 169 seats when the house is called in the coming days. This will be determined by coalition talks, and whether Khan-backed candidates are able to join a smaller party in parliament to form a single bloc to gain reserve seats.
Khan’s PTI party had threatened to hold nationwide peaceful demonstrations on Sunday if the vote tally was not released overnight. While a large-scale protest was called off, hundreds of PTI supporters blocked traffic in the northern city of Peshawar, according to a police source and motorists. The interim government stated that the voting count delay was caused by communications issues due to a mobile internet outage on election day, which was for security reasons.
Around 93 of the independent candidates who won seats were associated with Khan’s PTI party. Despite Khan’s imprisonment and the ban on his party’s electoral symbol, millions of his supporters came out to vote for him. However, as independents, they are at a disadvantage in trying to form a government as they are not eligible to be allocated any of parliament’s 70 reserved seats.
Sharif’s party could obtain up to 20 of these seats and has shown interest in working jointly with the minority regional Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party in the larger interest of the country. The election commission previously stated that results for two seats could not yet be included, one in which a candidate was killed, requiring the postponement of polling, and another in which polling would be completed later this month.
As the country grapples with this political uncertainty, questions are raised about the integrity and fairness of the election, especially with allegations of forged results and concerns over the mobile internet outage on election day. The next few days will be crucial in determining the future leadership of Pakistan and addressing the pressing challenges facing the country.
(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam, Charlotte Greenfield and Ariba Shahid in Islamabad, Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore; Editing by William Mallard, Sonali Paul and Bernadette Baum)
