Minister, as results of Wednesday’s election trickled on Thursday.However, incumbent party has rejected the early election results and suggested “blatant” rigging.
Shahbaz Sharif, the leader of the Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), dismissed results as counting was still underway.
Sharif, the brother of Pakistan’s jailed ex-leader, Nawaz Sharif told a press conference in Lahore: “Today what they have done has pushed Pakistan back 30 years… We reject this result. People will not bear it.”
Allegation of pre-poll meddlingThe election has been marred by widespread allegations of pre-poll meddling by the powerful military in favour of Khan, which saw the process dubbed Pakistan’s “dirtiest election”.
As election workers sorted through massive piles of paper ballots, other major parties including the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) also alleged that 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, saying “Inexcusable & outrageous”.
In a WhatsApp message, the PML-N also claimed that security forces had taken over polling stations.
The election commission’s secretary, Babar Yaqoob flatly denied allegations of vote count manipulation.
Shortly before Sharif spoke around midnight, state television said that just one fifth of the votes had been counted so far, an unusually slow count that further fuelled suspicions of rigging.
But Yaqoob said the vote-counting system, which he said was untested, had “crashed.”
He further stated “There is definitely no conspiracy; no one wants to influence the results”.
Sharif vowed later via Twitter to use “all political and legal options for redressal of these glaring excesses,” and that the party would meet on Thursday to decide a way forward.
Analyst Azeema Cheema said, “This is complete chaos.“Too many parties are making the claim (of rigging)… They are all saying the same things: the established rules and procedures have not been followed, the army has kicked their polling agents out of the polling booths, and that they have been intimidated.”
PTI supporters were already celebrating in cities across the country, including Lahore, Islamabad, Multan, Karachi and Rawalpindi, with fireworks, dancing and reports of celebratory gunfire.
First-time voter Ammar Haider, 20, said at a street celebration in Islamabad, “Imran is honest. He is a cool leader.”
Rare democratic transitionThe rigging allegations came after a suicide bombing in the South western city of Quetta, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, killed at least 31 people near a polling station, casting a shadow over voting day.
Wednesday’s vote was meant to be a rare democratic transition of power in the populous but poor nuclear-armed Muslim country, which has been ruled by the armed forces for roughly half its history.
The contest largely became a two-way race between Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the PML-N of ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, whose brother Shahbaz is leading his campaign.
Some voters in Lahore, capital of Punjab and traditionally a PML-N stronghold, said they were abandoning the party in favour of PTI.
The 75-year-old Uzma Akram said, “I have voted for PML-N my whole life but this time I voted for PTI because Imran Khan has promised free education and health.”
Up to 800,000 police and troops were stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country, after a string of attacks targeting political events in the final weeks of the campaign killed more than 180 people.
Khan, 65, campaigned on populist promises to build a “New Pakistan” and vowed to eradicate corruption, clean up the environment and construct an “Islamic welfare” state.
But his bid for power was dogged by widespread accusations that he is benefiting from a “silent coup” by the generals.
The military has denied the allegations.
Election authorities granted military officers broad powers inside polling centres which further stirred fears of manipulation.
Nawaz Sharif was ousted from power last year and jailed over a corruption conviction days before the vote, removing Khan’s most dangerous rival.
NAN/Olajumoke Adeleke/Lateefah Ibrahim
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