The election of Pakistan in disarray as the incumbent rejects the result | News from the world

The Pakistani parliamentary elections were plunged into chaos after the Pakistani-Nawaz Muslim League (PMLN) declared that it would reject the outcome of allegations that the military rigged the ballot in favor of the party. headed by former cricketer Imran Khan With only a third of the votes counted before 3am – an hour after the official date of the denouement – Khan's Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 110 seats , with the PMLN lagging behind out of 68.

According to most projections, the PTI would win between 107 and 120 seats out of a total of 272 in the lower house, exceeding expectations and conferring for the first time the role of Prime Minister at Khan

. Pakistan (ECP), an independent body, has blamed the delay in the announcement of the result following the failure of the software of transmission of the results that he bought to a British company

"It n & # 39; There is no conspiracy, no pressure on the results ". ECP dry Babar Yaqoob, told reporters. "The delay is caused because the transmission system of the results has collapsed."

But Shehbaz Sharif, the leader of the PMLN, said that his party "totally rejects" the election result, declaring at a press conference that dozens of stations were expelled by officials security before the final count is reached, leaving them unable to monitor attempts to falsify.

"The mandate of millions of people who came to vote was humiliated, and our democratic process has been postponed for decades," Sharif said.

The PMLN, which attempted to restrict the power of the military to power, claimed for months that the establishment "fabricated" the vote against it. Former party leader Nawaz Sharif, who started on July 13 a 10-year prison sentence for corruption, accused the deputy head of the country's all-powerful ISI spying agency of running a campaign against the PMLN. He said that this included pressure on his candidates for them to fail, a series of court cases and the smothering of media channels.

While election workers sorted huge stacks of ballots, almost all parties – with the exception of PTI – polling agents were excluded from polling stations.

Bilawal Bhutto, the leader of Pakistan's Liberal Party (PPP) – the third largest party in the country – tweeted that it was "inexcusable and outrageous" that his activists were excluded "across the country" .

BilawalBhuttoZardari
(@ BBhuttoZardari)

It is now past midnight and I have not received any official result from any constituency I dispute myself. My candidates complaining about the voting agents were expelled from polling stations across the country. Inexcusable and scandalous.

July 25, 2018

The complaint was resumed by his rival Khadim Rizvi, the rude cleric who heads the far-right Islamist group, Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP). "It's the worst case in history," said a spokesman for Rizvi.

PMLN Senator Musadik Malik told reporters that security officials had resumed procedures at polling stations. "If what most political parties claim is true," said Aqil Shah of the University of Oklahoma, "it would be the biggest flight of an election since the 1970s," adding that the parties should "unite and demand a repetition".

The leaders of the ITP rejected the claims. The next finance minister of Pakistan, Asad Umar, said that only "sympathizers of India" were crying, while the rest of Pakistan "sees that the country is moving towards improvement."

Naeem ul Haq, a spokesman for Khan, said the party chairman would address the nation at 2 pm Thursday.

Concerns about the electoral process were increased after allowing the military officials inside polling stations and granting them supreme authority over the procedures, while the armed forces announced that they would deploy 371,000 soldiers on election day, five times more than in 2013 despite a significant improvement in national security. a bloody campaign in which a terrorist attack in the eastern province of Baluchistan killed 151 people at a rally, fears of election day violence were confirmed. In the hours following the opening of the poll, a suicide bombing in the Balochistan capital, Quetta, left 31 dead and was claimed by Isis.

Allegations of rigging tainted what was supposed to be second transfer of power from one civilian government to another in the existence of 71-year-old coup in Pakistan.

Many supporters have argued that Khan, captain of the 1992 Cricket World Cup and a philanthropist keep his promises to end corruption and make Pakistan an "Islamic welfare state"

At a street party in Islamabad, supporters of the PTI danced before the announcement of the official results

. Muhammad Junaid, 20, brandished his thumb stained ink in front of a polling station in Islamabad and said, "We want to change." His friend, Muhammad Salman, 20, said a generation of young voters were going to Khan after being unable to vote in 2013.

Election projections suggest that the ITP could easily form a coalition. would obtain the required majority of 136 seats, relying on natural allies in Federally Administered Tribal Areas and independent candidates.

Analyst Fasi Zaka argued that long-term instability would be limited: "Shehbaz Sharif is not a" He is a director, "he said, adding that the PPP would cool rapidly when it received the expected 40 seats.

Analysts said that, from an economic point of view, a stable PTI This coalition would help the country cope with an imminent crisis of the current account.

"In September, we must turn to the IMF to ask for the largest bailout in the history of Pakistan, between 15 and 18 billion dollars," said Adnan Rasool , Georgia State University. "If you have a strong coalition, you can adopt the policy measures we need to get that kind of bailout, which is to cut subsidies and reduce the budget deficit and reduce the value of the currency. "
[19659003] But, he added," this has been a process of e selection, not an election. It's embarrbading to watch. "