By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Independent candidates loyal to the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan won the most seats in Pakistan’s parliamentary elections, according to official results announced on Sunday, two days after voting ended amid allegations of fraud and delays.
The Election Commission of Pakistan said that the independents, many of whom were supported by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, secured 93 of the 266 seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, led by another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, came in second with 75 seats, followed by the Pakistan Peoples Party of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari with 54 seats.
Karachi-based Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan secured 17 seats. The Jamiat Ulama-e-Pakistan won four seats while the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid secured three seats. The Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party and the Balochistan National Party won two seats each.
The Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League (Zia), Pashtoonkhwa National Awami Party Pakistan, Balochistan Awami Party, National Party and the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party won a single seat each.
Polling was postponed in the NA-8 constituency after an independent candidate was shot dead, and the result of NA-88 has been withheld , where re-polling is scheduled to be held on Thursday.
The results, which were delayed for two days amid allegations of fraud and technical glitches, were a shocking surprise to many as Khan’s party had defied a months-long crackdown that included restrictions on campaigning, with many of its leaders in jail or barred from running.
Just weeks prior to polls, the Supreme Court barred Khan’s party from retaining its traditional electoral symbol of a cricket bat on the technical grounds that it had not held intra-party elections, a prerequisite for any political party to take part in the national election.
Khan, at odds with powerful army generals, himself was absent from the elections as he has been in prison since August last year and is also disqualified from contesting elections for ten years.
The election was seen as a historic milestone for Pakistan, as it marked only the country’s third-ever democratic transition of power. However, the allegations of military meddling cast a shadow over the process and raised doubts about the legitimacy of the new government.
The closely contested general election left no party with a clear majority, though bitter rivals, Khan and Sharif, both claimed victory, setting the stage for a possible showdown in the coming days.
The three-time prime minister Sharif said he would seek to form a coalition government.
The independents’ victory also does not guarantee that Khan’s party will be able to form a government, as it still needs to secure a majority of 169 seats in the National Assembly. The independents are also ineligible for any of the 70 reserved seats, which are allocated to parties based on their proportional representation in the final tally.
Analysts said some independent may switch to another party as they could play a crucial role in the formation of the next coalition.
Sharif’s PML-N party, which emerged as the largest single party in parliament, could get up to 20 of these seats, giving it an edge in the coalition-building process.
The election, which was held on Thursday, was marred by violence, logistical problems and a mobile internet blackout that hampered the transmission of results. The election commission said that the internet outage, which was imposed by the authorities for security reasons, caused delays in the vote count and the announcement of results.
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