Candidates loyal to imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan have won a shock victory in Pakistan’s election, defying a military-backed campaign of arrests and harassment to mount an unexpected bid for power in the country of 240mn.
Independent candidates backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party were on Friday set to be the largest group in parliament, but fell short of a majority and still looked likely to be blocked from government by the nation’s powerful military and establishment parties.
With counting almost over on Friday night, independent candidates — made up overwhelmingly of PTI candidates barred from running under the party symbol — had won 97 seats, according to Pakistan’s Election Commission.
The Pakistan Muslim League-N party of three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, previously favourite to emerge as the largest party, had won 66 seats. The Pakistan People’s party of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, had 51 seats.
A total of 265 seats were being contested after voting in one constituency was postponed following the killing of a candidate last week. A further 70 parliamentary seats are chosen indirectly.
The results, which followed a widely criticised shutdown of mobile networks on polling day, were delayed for hours. The PTI claimed this allowed officials to rig the count and reduce the number of seats it won. It has vowed to challenge the results in court and form a majority government.
Khan, a populist former cricket star, has been in jail under corruption charges since last year and was barred from contesting the election. Thousands of PTI supporters have been detained and the party’s candidates were largely unable to openly campaign.
