Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (center) votes at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Lahore, Pakistan. Ignoring the risk of militant attacks, Pakistanis rushed to the polls on Saturday for a historic vote that pitted a former cricket star against a two-time prime minister and an unpopular incumbent. But the attacks, which killed and injured dozens of people, underscored the risks many people took simply by voting. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) established an insurmountable lead over other parties in Saturday’s elections. Imran Khan-turned-politician’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were battling each other for a distant second place with leaders of 37 seats each.
Early trends in the vote count put the PML-N ahead, with the party leading with 112 seats in the 272-member National Assembly. Although there was no official announcement of the results, the PML-N declared victory shortly before midnight and its leadership addressed its supporters. With results still coming in, Mr Sharif hoped to have a clear majority by the morning.
Although the PML-N party entered the race as a leader, it won more seats than any analyst expected. The PTI’s performance was in line with the party’s expectations, although in the last couple of days the media has started giving it more space given the crowd Mr. Khan was drawing. The PPP barely managed to hold on to Sindh while the Awami National Party (ANP) was crushed.
Many of the PPP heavyweights, including former Prime Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf, lost the elections. Similarly, Asfandyar Wali Khan of the NPP – heir to Gandhi’s Frontier, the legacy of Khan Abdul Khan – lost his family’s pocket town of Charsadda.
Results started coming in as soon as polling stations closed in most parts of the country. In fact, television channels began publishing voting results even during voting as the Election Commission provided an extra hour at its own expense to make up for the time lost due to delays.
Since the morning, there have been reports from different parts of the country about a delay in voting. In some cases, the delay was caused by poll workers not showing up. There were also cases where ballots did not reach polling stations on time. In Karachi’s NA 250 constituency, voting was delayed due to attempts to hijack vehicles carrying voting materials from polling officers to polling stations.
Given the number of deaths from election-related violence over the past month, the election was largely peaceful. However, 24 people died in several incidents throughout the day; a maximum of 11 people were killed in a bomb blast at the Awami National Party (ANP) office in Karachi. The NPP suffered its most serious defeat in this election; first at the hands of terrorists and then at the hands of voters as the party suffered serious losses in the campaign.
Small explosions were reported from other locations; mainly in the northwestern regions of the country. There were explosions in Quetta, Mardan and Peshawar, while a clash between two factions in Chaman killed three people. In Karachi, there were allegations of fraud with the Jamat-e-Islami, which even decided to boycott polling stations at noon. Similar accusations were made by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which complained that the party’s mandate had been stolen.
Published – May 11, 2013 7:19 pm EST.
