Khan loyalists lead, but PML-N claims 'victory'

PML-N emerges single largest party; independents dominate political landscape amid poll rigging charges

ISLAMABAD:

As the election dust settled on Friday with results on a majority of seats trickled in, a clear victor remained elusive and independents backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf maintained their numeric superiority over mainstream parties -- a scenario viewed as a long shot before the election.

However, the delayed result announcements—attributed by the government to the suspension of mobile phone services—kept the nation on edge for almost 24 hours.

The piecemeal announcements of the results threw the closely-watched contest into the throes of uncertainty, seeding speculations and eliciting alarms. The nation, nonetheless, remained deprived of closure.

On Friday evening, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif finally broke the silence by setting the tone for a national government in what his party dubbed as a victory speech after the PML-N emerged as the single largest party in Centre and Punjab following the February 8’s ‘tainted’ general elections.

Surprisingly, the three-time former prime minister’s speech came as the poll results were still pouring in and when questions were being raised at the inordinate delay by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in the announcement of results, casting doubt on polls’ transparency.

Despite claims that ECP’s new system was capable of working even without the internet, it miserably failed when the time came. In fact, at 2:30am on Thursday night – over 8 hours after the polling process concluded – the result of not a single constituency could be announced and the chief election commissioner was forced to issue a warning to the presiding officers to announce results forthwith or face consequences.

Read: Solangi congratulates nation on successful conduct of elections

The alleged manipulation of poll results also pushed the European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom to raise concerns about the fairness of polls. While reacting to allegations of rigging in the general elections, the EU called for a full investigation while the US called into question the “undue restrictions” put in place during polls. The US, however, pledged to work with whoever formed the next government.

Despite the controversy, Nawaz’s victory speech has come at a time when PTI’s general secretary and chief organizer, Omar Ayub Khan, said that the PTI-backed independent candidates will form the federal and provincial governments as they have so far won the majority seats out of the 266 seats of the National Assembly.

Amid speculations that the poll results were miraculously changed in favour of PML-N despite PTI-backed independent candidates’ victory on majority seats, the elder Sharif while conceding that the people didn’t give a simple majority to PML-N said that his party respects the mandate that people have given to other political parties and independent candidates.

Meanwhile, PTI workers and supporters protested against the alleged rigged results in NA-11, claiming that the poll results were changed overnight. Reportedly, at least three PTI workers were killed in the clashes between the PTI workers and the law enforcers.

The PML-N won the most seats by a single party in Thursday's election, but supporters of imprisoned Khan, who ran as independents instead of as a single bloc after his party was barred from the polls, won the most seats overall.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) swept Sindh, clinching an impressive 84 general seats in the Sindh Assembly, according to unofficial and unconfirmed results.

Considering the inclusion of reserved seats for women and minorities, the PPP's dominance in the Sindh Assembly is poised to surpass 100 seats for the first time.

As for the PML-N’s position in Punjab, the party grabbed 133 seats in the provincial assembly with PTI-backed independents trailing with 128 seats.