Pakistan election eve blasts leave 22 dead
QUETTA, Pakistan: At least 22 people were killed on Wednesday in two separate bomb blasts outside the offiCES OF ELECTION CANDIdates in southwestern Pakistan, on the eve of a national vote marred by violence and allegations of poll-rigging.
More than half a million security officers were deployed ahead of Thursday’s election, with authorities distributing ballot papers to more than 90,000 polling stations.
There have been multiple security incidents in the leadup to the vote, with at least two candidates shot dead and dozens more targeted in attacks across the South Asian country.
On Wednesday, a first improvised explosive device (IED) blast killed 12 people near the office of an independent candidate in Pishin district, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the city of Quetta and 100 kilometers from the Afghan border.
Jan Achakzai, caretaker Information minister for Balochistan province, and Quetta police said 25 people were also wounded.
A second IED detonated near the election office of a candidate for the Islamist Jamiat Ulema-eIslam-F (JUI-F) party in the city of Killa Saifullah, about 120 km (75 miles) east, Achakzai said.
“At least 10 people were killed and 12 others injured,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“The incident took place in the main bazaar of the city area, where the election office of the JUI-F was targeted,” a senior police official told AFP.
The election has been marred by allegations of pre-poll rigging following a crackdown on the party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, winner of the 2018 poll, but booted out of power by a parliamentary vote of noconfidence four years later.
Campaigning officially ended on Tuesday night and voting is due to begin at 8 a.m. (local time) and end at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Nearly 18,000 candidates are standing for seats in the national and four provincial assemblies, with 266 seats directly contested in the former — an additional 70 reserved for women and minorities — and 749 places in regional parliaments.
The figures are staggering in a country of 240 million people — the world’s fifth most populous — with about 128 million eligible to vote.
“We must ensure security measures at every level,” Sindh provincial police chief Rafat Mukhtar told a news briefing in the southern port city of Karachi on Wednesday.
The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies, a think tank based in the capital Islamabad, said there had been a “staggering” rise in militant attacks in the past year with an average of 54 a month — the most since 2015, when the army launched a massive crackdown on militant groups.
Whoever wins takes over a deeply divided country, observers say, with the economy in tatters.