Cricket star leads Pakistani vote amid election violence
Rival charges fraud; suicide blast kills 31
ISLAMABAD — Pakistanis voted for a new government Wednesday in an election marred by violence and allegations of fraud. The winner will face a crumbling economy and bloodshed by militants whose latest attack saw a suicide bomber kill 31 people outside a polling station.
Official results declaring a winner were not expected before Thursday morning.
Early unofficial results gave cricket star Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, or PTI, a commanding lead over his main rival, Shahbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League.
Khan supporters danced to the beat of drums at his party headquarters in Islamabad, sensing a victory. The sound of fire crackers echoed in the night sky.
Sharif, the younger brother of disgraced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been jailed on corruption charges, disputed the election results even before they were announced. He charged fraud and vowed not to accept the results, generating fears that disgruntled losers could delay the formation of the next government.
The parliamentary balloting marked only the second time in Pakistan’s 71year history that one civilian government has handed power to another in the country of 200 million people. There also have been concerns during the election campaign about manipulation by the military, which has directly or indirectly ruled the country for most of its existence.
“We will sweep the elections,” said Abdul Basit, a supporter of Khan’s, who watched the results on a large TV screen.
Hours after the polls opened, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle detonated his explosives in a crowd waiting to vote in the southwestern city of Quetta.
In addition to the 31 dead, the attack wounded 35 people, said Dr. Jaffar Kakar, a hospital official. No one claimed responsibility, but local officials were quick to blame the Islamic State, also called ISIS.
The attack in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, underscored the difficulties the majority Muslim nation faces on its wobbly journey toward sustained democracy.
Baluchistan also saw the worst violence during campaigning earlier this month, when a suicide bomber struck at a political rally, killing 149 people, including the candidate Siraj Raisani. Another 400 were wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack. Baluchistan has seen relentless attacks, both by the province’s secessionists and Sunni militants who have killed hundreds of Shiites there.
As voting ended, festive supporters of both parties gathered outside polling stations, dancing to the beat of drums. The third-largest party is the left-leaning Pakistan People’s Party, headed by Bilawal Bhutto, the son of late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, assassinated
by the Pakistani Taliban, whom she had vowed to eradicate.
More than 11,000 candidates are vying for 270 seats in Pakistan’s law-making National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, and 577 seats in four provincial assemblies.