Blast mars Pakistan vote
Suicide bomber kills at least 31 near polling station
Pakistanis voted Wednesday in elections that could propel former World Cup cricket hero Imran Khan to power, after a campaign marred by insurgent violence that culminated with an election day suicide blast killing at least 31.
The vote is a rare democratic transition in the populous Muslim country, which has been ruled by the military for roughly half its history.
Polling day violence struck when dozens of people were killed in the suicide bombing, claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group, in the southwestern city of Quetta.
It was the second major attack by IS this month in Balochistan Province, after an earlier blast killed 153 people in Pakistan's deadliest ever suicide attack.
Hashim Ghilza, a local administration official, said the bomber attempted to enter the polling station.
“When police tried to stop him he blew himself up,” he told AFP.
The blast left a scene of chaos all too familiar to residents of Quetta. Debris, bloodstains and charred vehicles littered the road outside the polling station as dead and injured were rushed to hospital accompanied by distraught loved ones.
The contest has largely become a two-way race between Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of ousted premier Nawaz Sharif, whose brother Shahbaz is leading its campaign.
Khan, 65, cast his vote in Bani Gala, a suburb of the capital Islamabad, telling the media it was “time to defeat parties which kept this country hostage for years.”
Khan was campaigning on populist promises to build a “New Pakistan,” vowing to eradicate corruption, clean up the environment and construct an “Islamic welfare” state.
The first voter to enter a polling station in the eastern city of Lahore was a woman, business executive Maryum Arif, who told AFP she planned to vote for the PML-N as “it has served Pakistan.”
She was followed shortly after by Shahbaz Sharif, who called on Pakistanis to “get out of their homes and ... change the fate of Pakistan” before casting his own vote and flashing a victory sign.
But other voters in Lahore, traditionally a PML-N stronghold, said they were abandoning the party in favor of PTI.
“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,” said 75-yearold Uzma Akram.
Up to 800,000 police and troops have been stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country, with concerns for security after a string of attacks targeting political events in the final weeks of the campaign killed more than 180 people, including three candidates.
An earlier attack in Balochistan Wednesday left one policeman dead and three wounded when a hand grenade was thrown at a polling station.
In the northwestern town of Swabi one PTI worker was killed in an exchange of fire with a rival party, police said. But analyst Rasool Bukhsh Rais said he did not think security fears would prevent Pakistanis from voting, adding that the Quetta blast “will not demoralize people.”