2024-02-11 23:14:43
Counting of votes in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections ended today, with independent candidates backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan winning 101 of the 264 seats, Reuters reported, citing official figures on the Election Commission of Pakistan website. .
The final results of the count were released more than 60 hours after voting in the election closed on Thursday, a delay that raised questions about the process.
Independent candidates edged out the party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, which won 75 seats, becoming the largest independent party in parliament as Khan’s supporters ran as independents after the Election Commission barred his party from running in the elections due to non-compliance with the electoral laws.
Sharif said his party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, was in talks with other groups to form a coalition government as it fell short of the 133 seats needed to achieve a simple majority in parliament.
Khan’s Justice Movement party has threatened to stage peaceful protests across the country today if the vote count is not announced overnight.
Pakistan’s caretaker government said the delay was caused by communication problems due to a mobile internet outage on election day. The blackout, which authorities say was deliberate and carried out for security reasons, has raised concerns among human rights groups and foreign governments, including that of the United States.
Today, in a post on the social network “X”, until recently “Twitter”, the party secretary of the “Movement for Justice” called for general protests, but said that there should be demonstrations only in certain polling stations where they are concerned about “falsified” results .
About 93 of the independent candidates who won seats are affiliated with Khan’s party, Reuters noted.
Despite Khan’s ban and imprisonment on charges ranging from leaking state secrets to corruption and illegal marriage, millions of supporters of the former cricketer came out to vote for him, even though he cannot be part of any government while in jail.
One of the problems independent MPs face in trying to form a government, however, is that they are not eligible for any of the 70 reserved seats (60 reserved for women and 10 for minority groups) in The National Assembly (Pakistan’s lower house of parliament), which are allocated according to party support after the final results. Sharif’s party could get up to 20 of these seats.
Earlier, the electoral commission said elections for two seats had not yet taken place – the candidate for one had been killed, forcing the vote to be postponed, and voting for the other was scheduled for later this month.