Khan’s party upsets predictions
Pakistan’s general election has taken a surprising turn, with candidates affiliated with the party of jailed opposition leader Imran Khan appearing to have performed well above expectations, according to provisional official results.
Khan’s rival, three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, had been widely viewed as the clear front runner and preferred candidate of Pakistan’s powerful military, which has a history of shaping politics in the country. But by yesterday, his party had won only 70 out of 246 called races, compared to over 90 for Khan-linked candidates.
Sharif suggested in a speech that his Pakistan Muslim League party would seek to form a broad coalition government. “Since we don’t have a clear majority, we will reach out to steer the country out of the quagmire it is in,” he said.
Sharif’s outreach, however, is unlikely to include the leadership of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which continues to be deeply at odds with Pakistan’s establishment and is unlikely to return to power, despite the races won by people associated with it.
But a future government could include some candidates who ran on the ticket of Khan’s party. All of its candidates had been ordered by a court to run as independents in the leadup to the election, which now opens up the possibility of rival parties poaching some of them in the coming days.
This could turn upcoming coalition talks into a particularly fraught process, and deepen the polarisation between Khan’s supporters and his opponents in the nuclear-armed
country of 240 million.
Khan, who was arrested last August after a court convicted him of corruption, is still in jail and buried under multiple lawsuits. He did not run in this election, and his party would have no obvious coalition partner in parliament.
Sharif’s party has a clearer path to power if it can form a coalition with the Pakistan People’s Party, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who represents another major Pakistani political family.
But the provisional results still point to
lingering support for the PTI, which was politically sidelined by the Pakistani establishment after Khan ran afoul of the military two years ago.
“Your massive turnout has surprised everyone,” Khan told his supporters in an AI-generated speech from prison. “By voting, you have laid the foundation for true freedom.”
Its supporters say Khan’s party has been all but dismantled over the past year, with many of its leaders arrested and its offices raided.
In a statement, the United States State Department condemned “electoral violence, restrictions on the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including attacks on media workers, and restrictions on access to the internet and telecommunication services”, and said it was “concerned about allegations of interference in the electoral process”.
There were some initial reports of protests by PTI supporters over electoral fraud allegations in parts of the country. Two people were killed in northwestern Pakistan after PTI supporters clashed with police over claims of vote fraud there, officials said.
“There is a strong likelihood of more instability,” cautioned Pakistani political analyst Ijaz Khattak, especially if the PTI’s supporters felt that their candidates were being coerced into joining other parties.
When Khan was arrested on corruption charges early last year, the country witnessed days of clashes between security forces and his supporters. The PTI has warned that it may not be able to control its supporters’ fury if what they perceive as an election victory is taken from them.
Pakistani authorities cited security concerns to justify a nationwide shutdown of all mobile internet and cellphone connections starting on Thursday, when voting got under way, but the PTI alleged that the measures were part of a sophisticated attempt to manipulate the election.
Pakistan’s caretaker interior minister, Gohar Ejaz, defended the shutdown, saying it was necessary to deter militants who may have tried to attack polling stations with remote-controlled devices.