Cricket legend leads in election
Imran Khan, the cricket legend and charismatic Pakistani politician challenging Pakistan’s mightiest political dynasty, was leading early yesterday, local time, in national parliamentary elections that were marred by claims of fraud and a suicide bombing near a polling station that killed at least 31.
There were no official results by 1am local time, but numerous TV news channels showed Khan and other candidates in his Pakistan Justice Movement leading in 100 to 120 districts, while candidates from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N party were reported leading in 42 to 50 districts, and other parties trailed behind. Khan would need to win 141 of 272 seats to form his own government. In a late-night news conference here, Shahbaz Sharif, the Muslim League’s senior candidate, angrily rejected the reported results and denounced ‘‘massive irregularities’’ at the polls. But Asad Umar, a spokesman for Khan, told journalists in Islamabad, the capital, that ‘‘we are likely to have a clear majority . . . Pakistanis will be proud of this government.’’
Youthful supporters of Khan, who campaigned relentlessly against political corruption and elitism, sang and danced in cities and towns across the country all evening, celebrating what some called a new day in Pakistani political leadership, free of corruption and dedicated to the public good.
Millions of voters turned out on Wednesday despite intense heat and a campaign marked by rancor, terrorist attacks, accusations of military meddling and the dramatic return of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to serve a prison term for financial misdeeds.
The polls were guarded by police, troops and paramilitary rangers, after several attacks during the campaign killed more than 200 people.
They included a suicide bombing at a rally in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and a massive blast in southwestern Baluchistan province that killed 145 people, including a candidate for Parliament.
Despite the intensified security, another suicide bomber struck on Wednesday morning near a polling station in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan, killing 31 people, officials said. The bomber tried to enter the polls on foot but set off his explosives when security personnel stopped him, officials said.
The election marked the second democratic transition of power since 17 years of military rule ended in 2008.
More than 105 million people were eligible to vote at 85,000 voting stations nationwide, but the decisive battle was in Lahore, the capital of wealthy Punjab province, where the Sharif family has dominated politics for several decades. Both Khan and Shahbaz Sharif, the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, are running for Parliament from Lahore, and one or the other is likely to become prime minister.
Both men are in their mid-60s, but their rivalry embodies two competing versions of reality – Khan’s call to free Pakistan of corrupt political dynasties, and the Sharifs’ campaign to end shadowy military, judicial and bureaucratic influence in politics.
‘‘We are likely to have a clear majority . . . Pakistanis will be proud of this government.’’ Imran Khan