Imran vs Sharif: Pak’s voting day takes violent turn
Early leads put former cricketer in front
ISLAMABAD: Amid violence that left at least 35 people dead and 44 injured, Pakistan voted on Wednesday in a tense general election in which cricketerturned-politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is bidding to snatch power from jailed former prime minister Nawaz Shareef’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Trends emerging from counting centres, reported by local news channels, said Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was leading in 94 parliamentary seats while the party’s main rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was ahead on 53 seats in the initial round of counting, as of press time.
Bilawal Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was leading in 32 seats, an indication that he could play kingmaker in case of a hung verdict in the National Assembly.
Thirty-one people, including five police officers, were earlier killed in an attack by a suicide bomber near a polling centre in the western city of Quetta.
Security officials said the bomber drove his motorcycle into a police vehicle. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack. Four people died in other violence during an election that will lead to only the second civilian-to-civilian transfer of power in the country’s 70-year history.
The voting began at 8am local time in more than 85,000 polling stations and ended at 6pm. The results of the election to choose 270 members of the National Assembly and a total of 570 members to four provincial assemblies will officially be announced on Thursday. Nearly 106 million people were registered to vote in the elections.
Surveys ahead of the elections showed none of the top three parties — the PTI, PML (N) and the PPP— winning a majority, triggering fears of horse-trading to form a government after results come in. Pakistan’s powerful military, which has ruled for much of the nation’s history, has faced accusations during the campaign of intimidating critics and reporters to elect a pliant government. The military has denied the allegations.
Shehbaz Sharif, the PML-N president and Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, who is hoping to become the next prime minister, was among the first to cast his vote in Lahore. Nawaz Sharif was jailed this month on corruption charges. He is appealing his conviction.
“Just cast my vote. High time that all of you came out to vote for Pakistan’s progress and prosperity. May this election be a source of peace and stability for the nation!,” Shehbaz Sharif tweeted.
Khan, the celebrated former cricketer turned anti-corruption crusader, had the momentum heading into the election, and is seen as the military’s top choice for prime minister despite his denials. “This is the most important election in Pakistan’s history,” Khan, 65, said after casting his vote in the capital Islamabad.
A Gallup Pakistan poll in early July showed Imran Khan closing the gap with Sharif’s party, which is campaigning on its record of boosting infrastructure spending, improving security and reducing power cuts. Khan has pledged to turn Pakistan into an “Islamic welfare state” by building five million affordable homes within five years, while raising tax collection and improving the business environment. “If you asked me six months ago, I would have said Imran Khan has no chance of winning, but it’s now a neck-to-neck election,” said Mattias Martinsson, a money manager overseeing a total of $420 million of assets at Stockholm-based Tundra Fonder AB. Khan represents uncertainty for investors, particularly if he comes down hard on businesses, he added, but in the long run change might be beneficial for the country.
As polls closed, Pakistan’s Election Commission spokesman Nadeem Qasim told the Associated Press that the commission had issued a notice to Imran Khan saying his vote could be disqualified after he cast his ballot in front of television cameras, violating “the secrecy of the ballot paper”.
Qasim said Khan violated Pakistan’s constitution, which guarantees the secrecy of the ballot. Images showed a smiling Khan with his ballot paper laid out in front of him as he marked the ballot.
According to the Election Commission, 3,459 candidates were contesting 272 general seats of the National Assembly and 8,396 candidates were running for 577 general seats of the four provincial assemblies — Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and KhyberPakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan’s National Assembly comprises a total of 342 members, of which 272 were directly elected on Wednesday; 60 of the remaining seats are reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities. They are selected later through proportional representation among parties with more than 5% of the vote.
A party can form the government if it manages to clinch 137 of the general seats.
“For 30 years I have seen my country go backward,” said Nadir Khan, a 50-year-old IT businessman who travelled from Australia to vote for Khan’s PTI. “I’m not expecting things to change overnight, but he will change the course of the country.”
Voting ended at its scheduled time despite calls by several parties, including PTI, PML-N and PPP, for an extension of the polling time by an hour. They complained of “a slow voting process” and sought more time to facilitate voters to turn up at polling booths — a request rejected by the Election Commission. The turnout figure was awaited.