Election in Pakistan

Candidates with links to ex-prime minister lead

In the elections in Pakistan, candidates with links to the imprisoned former head of government are running neck-and-neck with the former prime minister's party. According to unofficial counts by television stations, the independents are currently in the lead in many constituencies.

A parliament and four provincial assemblies were elected on Thursday. By 10.30am (local time, 6.30am CET), the electoral commission had only announced the results for 37 National Assembly seats. The parliament has 266 seats that are directly elected and 70 that are reserved for women and minorities.

130 million people in Pakistan were called upon to cast their votes. The popular former head of government Khan, who founded the nationalist-centrist party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice/PTI) in 1996, was sentenced to long prison terms last week for treason, bribery and an illegal marriage and is now in prison. The majority of his party colleagues were also excluded from the election.

Change of government?
Instead, many independent candidates stood this time, many of them with the blessing of the PTI. The party of Prime Minister Sharif may not have won the most seats in parliament. Official results were not initially available on Friday. The Interior Ministry argued that there were problems with the transmission of votes. Mobile phone networks and mobile internet had been massively restricted due to alleged security concerns. The long delay reinforces accusations of manipulation.

Attacks on police officers
In fact, the election was overshadowed by violence and allegations of manipulation. Tens of thousands of soldiers were deployed to secure the polling stations. On Wednesday, at least 29 people were killed in two explosions near candidates' offices (see video above). According to the authorities, at least seven police officers were killed and others injured in attacks on Thursday.