Official results Friday from Pakistan’s elections showed candidates affiliated with the opposition PTI party claiming the largest number of parliamentary seats, amid allegations that the military-backed government was trying to manipulate the results.
By Friday night, the Election Commission of Pakistan had released the results for 217 of the 266 National Assembly seats up for grabs. These results showed that a group of independent candidates supported by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan had won 88 seats, more than any other party, despite being targeted by a state crackdown before the election.
Candidates of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PML-N, led by three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, had won 61 seats. Sharif is viewed as the powerful military's favorite.
The Pakistan Peoples Party, headed by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, was third with 50 seats, while smaller regional parties trailed behind.
The results trickled in after an unusually long delay and allegations the results are being manipulated to favor military-backed parties.
The vote took place Thursday amid a nationwide suspension of mobile phone and internet services and sporadic violence, fueling doubts about the credibility of an already controversial election.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Gohar Khan, acting PTI chairman, said his party was leading in more than 150 seats but that "attempts are being made to change the results.”
Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif spoke to his party workers in Lahore, saying his PML-N “has emerged as the largest party” in the country and would form a coalition government in Islamabad. He suggested that all political parties should come together and form a government to navigate Pakistan out of the difficulties it is currently facing.
Tallies disputed
Based on local constituency counts, unofficial overnight tallies from Pakistani media outlets showed PTI-backed candidates leading races nationwide. In some cases, they were ahead by 30,000 to 50,000 votes. However, according to early official results released on Friday, they were either lagging behind or lost the race by a small margin.
The election commission blamed the delay in processing the results on an "internet issue," while the Interior Ministry defended the election day suspension of mobile phone and internet services as "a result of preventive measures taken to ensure foolproof security" of the vote.
The services were reinstated Friday morning. “We knew there would be noise from every side over the decision, but I would take this decision again if I had to,” Interior Minister Gohar Ejaz told a news conference in the Pakistani capital.
The suspension of phone and internet services sparked widespread allegations of an attempt by Pakistan's military-backed interim government to rig the polls, mainly to prevent candidates loyal to Khan's party from gaining an upper hand.
“Unfortunately, the integrity of the ballot has been trampled,” said Asma Shirazi, a prominent prime-time political talk show host, during a live broadcast on her Urdu-language Hum news channel. “The way candidates, with some winning by huge margins overnight, have been declared losers has made this election even more contentious,” Shirazi said.
"The die is cast. If the final results show anything other than a PTI victory, PTI will reject it as a rigged result, and understandably so: Its early gains led to a long delay in announcing final results. The military, intent on denying power to PTI, intervened in the process," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at Wilson Center in Washington.
Asked about the criticism, Pakistan’s information and interior ministers told reporters Friday that the election commission is the only authorized body to respond to such questions and the commission has yet to make a comment.
In the northwestern town of Shangla, police clashed Friday with angry PTI supporters protesting alleged election rigging. A PTI statement later said the clashes left four of its workers dead and many more injured.
PTI-led rallies also erupted outside election offices elsewhere in Pakistan.
The European Union urged relevant Pakistani authorities Friday to ensure a timely and full investigation into reported election regularities.
“We regret the lack of a level playing field due to the inability of some political actors to contest the elections, restrictions to freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, both online and offline, restrictions of access to the internet, as well as allegations of severe interference in the electoral process, including arrests of political activists,” said the EU statement.
The United States condemned restrictions on access to the Internet and telecommunication services on Friday and expressed concern about allegations of interference in the electoral process.
“We now look forward to timely, complete results that reflect the will of the Pakistani people,” said the U.S. State Department spokesman Mathew Miller. “We join credible international and local election observers in their assessment that these elections included undue restrictions on freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly,” he added.
Pakistan has nearly 190 million cellular subscribers, including 128 million using mobile broadband services. The suspension of service prevented many voters from accessing the election commission's data system to retrieve polling station locations and other details.
Journalists with mainstream Pakistani television channels said they could not promptly report rigging incidents and other irregularities from the field throughout the day because of the suspension.
