Pakistan’s General Election: Imran Khan’s party-backed Independents lead in final poll count

PTI

Islamabad, February 11

Pakistan’s election commission on Sunday declared the final result of Thursday’s general elections in which independent candidates backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party got the biggest piece of the cake by winning 101 seats.

The unusual delay in the announcement of results vitiated the atmosphere as several parties cried foul and some resorted to protests.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced the results of 264 out of 265 contested seats.

The result of NA 88 in Khushab in Punjab province was withheld by the ECP due to complaints of fraud and it would be announced after redressing the grievances of the aggrieved. Election to one seat was postponed after the death of a candidate.

Independent candidates, a vast majority of them backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), secured 101 seats in the National Assembly.

They were followed by three-time former Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 75 seats, which technically is the single largest party in Parliament.

The Pakistan Peoples Party of Bilawal Zardari Bhutto got 54 seats, and the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) of Urdu-speaking people who migrated from India during Partition, got 17 seats.

Other smaller parties won the rest of the 12 seats.

To form a government, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the National Assembly.

Overall, 169 seats are needed to secure a simple majority out of a total of 336 seats in the National Assembly, which include the reserved slots for women and minorities which will be decided later.

Meanwhile, the complete results of the three provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have been announced but the results of the three constituencies of the Balochistan assembly were still pending.

In Punjab’s 296 contested seats, Independents got 138 seats, closely followed by PML-N with 137 and other parties getting 21 seats.

In Sindh’s total 130 contested seats, results of 129 were announced while the ECP ordered a re-poll in one constituency due to corruption.

In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a total of 113 seats were up for grabs, and results of 112 seats had been announced and withheld the outcome on one seat.

Earlier, elections on two seats were postponed before election day due to the deaths of the candidates.

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