Islamabad, Pakistan:

Candidates loyal to jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan took a slim lead in Pakistan’s election on Friday, with vote counting just over halfway complete against two dynastic parties considered favored by the military.

Khan was barred from taking part in Thursday’s election and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party faced a sweeping crackdown – banned from holding rallies and canceling ballot papers, forcing candidates to run as independents.

But the latest results from the slow counting process show that PTI loyalists have so far won about 49 seats in the 266-member National Assembly, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has won 42 seats. The People’s Party (PPP) won 34 seats), with more than half of the constituencies called.

Most of the seats won by PTI-backed candidates were in the stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, while results are still being announced in the most populous province of Punjab, which was won by PTI in the last election. , but former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML family won seats in the province. N has historically been dominant.

Unofficial statistics from local television show independents leading the race for many of the remaining seats.

Candidates running as independents can nominate belonging to any political party within 72 hours of winning, a practice that often leads to haggling and deal-making in Pakistani politics and could jeopardize the PTI’s success.

“But even if PTI fails to form a government, the election shows there are limits to political engineering,” said Bilal Gilani, executive director of Gallup Pakistan.

“It shows that the military doesn’t always get what it wants – that’s the silver lining,” he told AFP.

The interior ministry said on Friday that the election was marred by violence, mainly in the border areas with Afghanistan, with 61 attacks across the country.

At least 16 people were killed, including 10 members of the security forces, and 54 were injured.

More than 650,000 army, paramilitary and police personnel were deployed to provide security.

process slow

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday announced half of the full results for the winners of National Assembly seats within 24 hours of polls closing, as the government forced a day-long mobile network shutdown during the polls. Thursday.

“The delay strategy speaks volumes about the results being manipulated and there is no other reason behind the delay,” shopkeeper Nisar Ahmed, 45, told AFP.

Sadaf Farooqi, a teacher with 40 years of experience, added that “there is no reason other than that the results were tampered with”.

Sharif’s Muslim League-Nawab faction is expected to win the most seats after Thursday’s vote, with analysts saying Sharif’s 74-year-old founder has the backing of the military-led establishment.

PLM-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said they still held out hope of winning Punjab, which was crucial to forming a government.

The PPP, which also has close ties with the military but whose popularity is largely limited to the heartland of Sindh province, appears to be performing better than expected, with leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari saying early results were “very Encouraging.”

After Khan’s PTI won a slim majority in the 2018 elections, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and People’s Party (PPP) joined forces with smaller parties to oust Khan from power in April 2022.

Khan then launched an unprecedented revolt against the military-led establishment that initially supported his rise to power.

Last week, he was found guilty of treason, corruption and un-Islamic marriage in three separate trials, one of nearly 200 cases brought against him since his expulsion.

Manipulate fear

The election was also clouded by accusations of electoral fraud and the authorities’ shutdown of Pakistan’s mobile phone network on polling day.

Caretaker interior minister Gohar Ejaz defended the “difficult decision” to suspend mobile phone services on security grounds.

“We are fully aware that the suspension of mobile services will impact the transmission of election results across Pakistan and delay the process, however, the choice is between this delay and the safety of our citizens,” he said in a statement on Friday. Very simple.”

Digital rights activist Usama Khirji said the disruption to mobile services “reinforced the perception that the election was rigged by the deep state”.

PTI Information Secretary Raoof Hasan said in a video statement that the party’s field agents reported that PTI candidates were leading in 125 constituencies.

“There may be efforts being made to tamper with the results,” he said of the delay in the announcement from ECP headquarters.

Mohammad Zubair, a 19-year-old street vendor in Lahore, said PTI supporters would not accept the PML-N’s victory.

“Everyone knows how many seats Khan’s independent candidates won,” he said. “They had no logo, no captain, no flag, no banner, but we still won on the field.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)