Cricket legend claims election victory in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD — Imran Khan, a cricket legend turned anti-corruption agitator, claimed a resounding victory Thursday and was poised to become Pakistan’s next prime minister after an election that was tarnished by allegations that the army had rigged the campaign in his favor.
Pakistan’s election commission had yet to release final results from a tedious and much-delayed vote-counting process, but unofficial returns published by Pakistani media showed Khan’s party far ahead with nearly twice the number of parliamentary seats as his closest rival.
“After 22 years of struggle, my prayers have been answered,” Khan, 65, said in a televised address. “I have gotten the chance to fulfill my dream and serve the nation.”
Khan, who entered politics in 1996 after leading Pakistan’s cricket team to its only title in the quadrennial World Cup, echoed the populist messages he had sounded on the campaign trail. In a country reeling from a fiscal crisis and weakening currency, he pledged to alleviate poverty, strengthen accountability for corruption, reduce government expenses and use the prime minister’s house as an educational institution — saying he would be “embarrassed” to live in the palatial residence.
He also spoke in conciliatory terms about the United States — which he has blasted as an occupying force in neighboring Afghanistan — and rival India, saying he would work to improve ties “if their leadership also wants it.”
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf party, which means “Movement for Justice,” had won at least 119 of the 270 National Assembly seats being contested, according to unofficial results posted by the Dawn newspaper. It was a massive increase over the 35 it won in the last general election five years ago and nearly double the tally of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’s Pakistan Muslim League.
Even if Khan’s party falls short of the 137 seats needed to form a government on its own, analysts said he would be able to draw smaller parties and independents into a stable coalition.
Before Khan spoke, the incumbent party formerly led by Sharif — now jailed on corruption charges — had rejected the results, saying that unexplained delays in releasing electronic vote totals amounted to a “humiliation of the public mandate.”
The allegations of ballot irregularities marred a milestone election: the second consecutive nonviolent transfer of power between elected governments in a country that has been under military rule for much of its 71-year history.
But many Pakistanis believe the military meddled to shape the outcome by intimidating members of Sharif ’s party and clamping down on media outlets seen as sympathetic to the former leader.
Sharif’s younger brother Shahbaz, leading the party in his absence, suggested he would challenge the results, hinting at a bitter legal battle but one he was unlikely to win, given the army’s ability to stifle dissent.
“This is an outright rigging and the results based on massive rigging will cause irreparable damage to the country,” Shahbaz Sharif tweeted late Wednesday.