Election 2018: PTI tipped for victory as majority unofficial results announced
More than 100 million people across the country exercised their voting right on July 25.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is leading on 119 National Assembly seats whereas Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has managed to take 63 seats so far in general election 2018.
According to unofficial results of majority constituencies, Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) stands at third position with 38 seats while 17 seats have been claimed by independent candidates.
So far in Punjab, the preliminary results showed PML-N has taken 131 seats with PTI holding 124 provincial seats. Independent candidates, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid and other parties have bagged 28, four and nine seats apiece
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, PTI stood on top slot with 65 seats whereas ANP only claimed eight seats. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) took nine seats, PPP two and other parties grabbed eight seats.
However in Sindh, PPP grabbed 70 seats while PTI emerged as second largest party with 22 seats. Muttahida Qaumi Movement bagged 20 seats, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and other parties clinched eight seats each.
The situation is different in Balochistan where Balochistan Awami Party took 14 seats but PTI failed to impress the voters. MMA and Balochistan National Party (BNP) stood at same level with eight seats each while independent candidates and other parties held seat seats each.
A majority of 137 seats is needed to form a government.
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The contest largely became a two-way race between Imran Khan, the World Cup cricket hero turned politician who heads PTI, and the PML-N of ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, whose brother Shehbaz is leading his campaign.
PTI supporters are already holding small celebrations in cities across the country, including Lahore, Islamabad, Multan and Rawalpindi, with fireworks, dancing and reports of celebratory gunshots as results pour in.
Candidates and voters
Over 12,500 candidates were in the run for the seats of National and provincial assemblies. According to the electoral rolls, 105.96 million voters were eligible to cast the vote. Of these, 59.22 million were male and 46.73 million are females.
Watch report on polling day
As per ECP record, 59.22 percent of the registered voters in Pakistan are males while only 46.73pc are females.
ECP set up 85,307 polling stations across the country. Around 20,000 polling stations were declared sensitive and CCTV cameras were installed inside and outside all the sensitive polling stations.
At least 450,000 policemen and three hundred thousand army troops were deployed while 750,000 polling staffers performed their duties as 100 million registered voters flocked to their respective polling stations across the country on July 25 to elect their favorite candidates for next five years.
Prominent leaders face victory, defeat
PTI’s vice president Shah Mehmood Qureshi has won election in NA-156 constituency of Multan. According to unofficial results from 312 out of 312 polling stations, PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi has won election against PML-N’s Amir Saeed Ansari.
PPP’s Khursheed Shah led in NA-206 Sukkur-1, followed by PTI’s Tahir Hussain.
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PTI candidate Nisar Jatt has won the election in NA-156 constituency of Faisalabad with 44,437 votes against PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah who got 43,838 votes.
PTI candidate and former KP chief minister Pervez Khattak has won the elections in Nowshera-1 NA-25 by bagging 61,243 votes against MMA’s Syed Zulfikar Ali Shah.
Election results rejected
Shehbaz Sharif, president of Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), dismissed results from Wednesday’s nationwide poll as counting is still underway.
"Today what they have done has pushed Pakistan back 30 years... We reject this result," Sharif, the brother of Pakistan’s jailed ex-leader Nawaz Sharif, told a press conference in Lahore.
PML-N wholly rejects election results: Shehbaz Sharif
"People will not bear it," he added.
Sharif vowed later via Twitter to use "all political and legal options for redressal of these glaring excesses", adding that the party would meet on Thursday to decide a way forward.
We will use all political and legal options for redressal of these glaring excesses. This is an outright rigging and the results based on massive rigging will cause irreparable damage to the country.
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) July 25, 2018
PPP also alleged the count was being manipulated.
"My candidates complaining polling agents have been thrown out of polling stations across the country," tweeted PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, adding: "Inexcusable & outrageous".
It’s now past midnight & I haven’t received official results from any constituency I am contesting my myself. My candidates complaining polling agents have been thrown out of polling stations across the country. Inexcusable & outrageous.
— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) July 25, 2018
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman while talking to media said that he will host an All Parties’ Conference to discuss alleged rigging in elections.
ECP rejects rigging allegations
Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) batted away allegations of ballot-rigging Thursday, defending an ongoing delay in the formal vote count as a technical issue.
ECP Secretary talks to media on result delay
Despite the technical issues, "these elections were 100 percent fair and transparent", said Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Muhammad Raza on Thursday, in his first comments after polls closed.
--- with input from AFP
