ISLAMABAD: Pakistani cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan led in partial results of a general election on Thursday, as the party of his jailed chief rival, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, rejected the count as “blatantly” rigged. With just 30 percent of the total vote counted, the Election Commission of Pakistan had Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party leading in 113 of 272 contested National Assembly constituencies. Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was ahead in 66 constituencies, and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), led by the son of assassinated two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, led in 39 constituencies. An official at the Election Commission said early on Thursday that final results had been delayed by technical failures. “There’s no conspiracy, nor any pressure in delay of the results. The delay is being caused because the result transmission system has collapsed,” secretary Babar Yaqoob told reporters. Khan’s camp was increasingly confident of winning the election, although it still appeared likely to fall short of the 137 seats needed for a majority in the National Assembly, raising the prospect it would need to find coalition partners among smaller parties and independents. Khan’s party spokesman, Fawad Chaudhry, tweeted “Congratulations to the nation on a new Pakistan! Prime Minister Imran Khan”, although his party has officially held off on declaring victory. Wednesday’s voting was marred by a suicide bombing that killed 31 people near a polling station in Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan. “INTOLERABLE” Thursday’s election results will mark only the second civilian transfer of power in Pakistan’s 71-year history. But campaigning has been plagued for months by allegations that the unseen hands have been trying to tilt the race in Khan’s favour after falling out with the outgoing ruling party of Sharif, who was jailed on corruption charges this month. The PML-N had sought to cast the election as a referendum on democracy, and has said it was campaigning to protect the “sanctity of the vote”. Early on Thursday, Sharif’s brother Shehbaz, who now leads the PML-N, rejected the results after complaints that law enforcement personnel stationed in polling stations had thrown out poll monitors from political parties during the counting. Shahbaz Sharif (R), the younger brother of ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the head of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), shows a document as he speaks during a press conference at his political office in Lahore on July 25, 2018, as voting closed in general elections. About 371,000 soldiers have been stationed at polling stations across the country, nearly five times the number deployed at the last election in 2013. The PML-N and the PPP both said their monitors in many voting centres had not received the official notifications of the precinct’s results, but instead got hand-written tallies that they could not verify. “It is a sheer rigging. The way the people’s mandate has blatantly been insulted, it is intolerable,” Shehbaz told a news conference as the counting continued. “We totally reject this result,” he said. “It is a big shock to Pakistan’s democratic process.” The PPP also complained that its polling agents were asked to leave during the vote count in a number of voting centres. “This is the warning bell of a serious threat,” said PPP senator Sherry Rehman. “This whole election could be null and void, and we don’t want this.” “WE WILL TAKE ACTION” Election official Yaqoob promised that all formal complaints would be investigated. “If there are certain polling stations where they have any complaints, we should be approached. We will take action,” Yaqoob said. But he said he had no knowledge of widespread problems. “We’re getting complaints that on some polling stations where certain parties are losing, their polling agents are leaving without taking the verified results,” he said. Khan has staunchly denied allegations by PML-N that he is getting any help. Pakistan’s new government will face a mounting and urgent in-tray, from a brewing economic crisis to worsening relations with on-off ally the United States to deepening cross-country water shortages. An anti-corruption crusader, Khan has promised an “Islamic welfare state” and cast his populist campaign as a battle to topple a predatory political elite hindering development in the impoverished mostly-Muslim nation of 208 million people, where the illiteracy rate hovers above 40 percent. If Khan’s lead holds, his party will likely be able to form a government with smaller parties and independents, avoiding the prospect of weeks of haggling. Such a delay could further imperil Pakistan’s economy, with a looming currency crisis expected to force the new government to turn to the IMF for Pakistan’s second bailout since 2013. PTI has not ruled out seeking succour from China, Islamabad’s closest ally.<doc-sep>The results of the General Election 2018 have been delayed due to a technical glitch, the Election Commission of Pakistan Secretary Babar Yaqoob confirmed early Thursday morning. While speaking to media, he shared that the delay has not been caused by any 'wicked conspiracy' or pressure. The results have been delayed as the result transmission system malfunction while data pertaining to results was entered into it, he added. "The RTS system had not been tested in Pakistan," he remarked. On Wednesday, Pakistan voted for the country’s second consecutive democratic transfer of power. Polling began at 8AM across the country's 85,307 polling stations and continued until 6PM despite calls by several major parties, including PML-N, PPP and PTI, to extend the polling time by an hour. The parties had complained of “a slow voting process” and thus sought more time to facilitate voters — a request that was dismissed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The election campaign was marred by violence with three candidates killed in targetted attacks and culminated with a suicide blast outside a polling station in Quetta which claimed at least 30 lives.<doc-sep>Imran Khan came under scanner after casting his vote in full view of the media and cameras. (Reuters) Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan's vote from a parliamentary seat in Islamabad, from where he is also contesting the general elections, may be cancelled by the election commission for allegedly violating the code of conduct, according to media reports today. President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Shahbaz Sharif and former foreign minister Khawaja Asif may also face action after the poll panel took serious note of them interaction with the media after casting their votes. Imran Khan came under scanner of the Election Commission of Pakistan for not maintaining the secrecy and casting his vote in full view of the media and cameras. The ECP may now cancel his vote for Islamabad's NA-53 constituency, the Dawn reported. The poll body took notice of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief, the PML-N leader and Asif speaking to media after casting their vote, a senior ECP official said. "Actions may be taken against politicians who delivered speeches and those who voted on-camera, with their every move being monitored (by the ECP)," ECP spokesperson Nadeem Qasim was quoted as saying by the Express Tribune. He also added that media house has been directed not to air these speeches as they violate fundamental rules of the ECP. Reacting to the report, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, in an official statement, said that the party chief hasn't violated any election rules, and has instead urged the ECP to take note of the fake news. "Taking notice against a particular party's leader may present an unbalanced view and compromise the elections," the party said. Meanwhile, in Karachi, seven persons, including a woman, were arrested for allegedly taking part in rigging during the elections. According to police, the arrested persons were polling agents of political parties. They were arrested on the instructions of presiding officers for violating polling rules, they added. "They all are polling agents of three different political parties whose candidates were contesting on NA-238 Karachi," DIG Amir Farooqi said. They had brought with them downloaded copies of forms 40 and 45 from the ECP website, he said, adding that the forms were supposed to be provided to the polling agents by their concerned presiding officers. But since they brought the forms with themselves, the presiding officer deemed it a violation and reported the incident, the official said.<doc-sep>
Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan defended the hour-long delays in the announcement of the general election results, and ruled out allegations of rigging. “We are not more than two hours late. The delay was caused by some technical faults in the RTS system,” Sardar Raza Khan told reporters at 4am Thursday.... Your browser does not support the video tag. “We are not more than two hours late. The delay was caused by some technical faults in the RTS system,” Sardar Raza Khan told reporters at 4am Thursday. The deadline for the results was supposed to be 2am. Even then, he announced ‘unofficial’ and unconfirmed results of a Punjab Assembly constituency, PP-11, where PTI's Chuadhry Adnan beat the PML-N candidate, securing 43,079 votes. “The delay has not affected the results,” he said. Sardar Raza Khan rejected political party accusations about the ECP’s failure, but assured that their concerns would be investigated. “This is not the ECP’s failure; we have done our job,” he said, and thanked all institutions, including the army, media, and judiciary, for help in the holding of the general elections in a "free, fair and transparent" manner. As polling ended July 25, major political parties claimed rigging and vote manipulation. PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif rejected the early election results that suggested PTI chairman Imran Khan is becoming the country's next prime minister. Sharif said, “People will not bear the blatant rigging. It has pushed Pakistan back 30 years.” Other political parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami, PPP and MQM, also raised the similar concerns about the results from Wednesday's nationwide poll. The vote count was still underway and the Election Commission is compiling the results at 5am.