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Islambad (dpa) – After the legislative elections of in Pakistan, several parties raised the accusation of electoral fraud during the vote counting process.
The Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) will not recognize the outcome of the elections, said its main candidate Shahbaz Sharif, a younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday night At a hastily held news conference, the PML-N candidates had not received authentic copies of the election results.
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) also declared that victory was denied in Sindh province, where the party has its base. PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said the election observers of the election candidates had been expelled from polling stations and had received no official results. The PPP does not want to accept the result either.
Local media announced Wednesday night, during the vote, an election victory for the Justice Movement (Tehreek-e Insaf / PTI) of former cricket star Imran Khan. The electoral commission did not initially announce any results.
Recent pre-election polls had predicted a face-to-face race between the PML-N party of former Prime Minister Sharif and the PTI party of the former cricket star. Khan is considered the main candidate of the army . Both deny that.
Already during the election campaign the accusation that the army was trying to influence the elections was widespread. Above all, the ruling PML-N party deplored a targeted campaign against them by the military with the alleged support of the judiciary. Several senior members of the party have been excluded from the elections or accused of corruption. The party's founder, Nawaz Sharif, who is considered one of the most powerful politicians in the country, was sentenced to ten years in prison for corruption three weeks before the elections and is currently in detention.
The election was overshadowed by a serious terrorist attack in the south-west of the country. A suicide bombing in Quetta killed at least 31 people. Among the victims are children and policemen, said Mohamed Jafar of the Quetta Civil Hospital. At least 35 other people were injured. The Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia has claimed responsibility for attacking its Amaq propaganda chain for itself.
370,000 soldiers were put out to secure the polling stations. For the first time, the military not only guarded the polls outside the entrances, but was also deployed in the polls themselves. The army should also be present when counting votes in electoral stations.
His role was under special observation on election day. "There is a code of conduct and, as observers, we are looking at military behavior," said the head of the EU Election Observation Mission, the German MEP Michael Gahler (CDU) during a visit to a voting center in Islamabad. The report of the EU Election Observation Mission is expected to be released on Friday.
The Pakistan Election Commission registered 654 complaints shortly before the closing of the polls. These would only concern violations of the electoral code, said its spokesman Altaf Khan, such as late opening of polling stations, missing election documents or that the electoral process is too slow. There had been no complaints about the army.
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