Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leads with 118 seats in #PakistanElections2018

Islamabad, July 26: The counting of votes for Pakistan’s 11th general elections began an hour after the polling process was completed on Wednesday. The latest preliminary results available for 268 of 272 seats indicate that Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is in a position to win.

 

Notably, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is currently leading on 118 seats, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is ahead on 60 seats. On the other side, President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party is leading on 35 seats. The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal is leading on 12 seats, while Muttahida Qaumi Movement on six.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s party workers from across the country are celebrating the results while the PML-N flatly rejected the ongoing outcome, citing "outright rigging" and accusing officials of preventing its representatives from overseeing the count. PML-N front-runner Shahbaz Sharif in a tweet said, his party wholly rejects the results of the elections due to manifest and massive irregularities.

On Wednesday, polling began at 8AM across the country's 85,307 polling stations and continued until 6 PM. Several major parties including PML-N, PPP and PTI urged Election Commission of Pakistan to extend the polling time by an hour alleging of a slow voting process. However, the request was dismissed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Polling took place was held for members of the lower house of Parliament and four provincial assemblies. As many as 12,570 candidates contested for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the country's 11th General Election. Counting then began at the polling stations on 7 pm across the country after the polling process was completed.

Earlier, the new voting machines suffered some unexpected technical errors due to which results were delayed. The ECP in a statement clarified that the only reason for the delay is a technical fault in the newly-launched Results Transmission System.

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 29 lives. A party can form the government if it manages to clinch 172 seats out of the total 342. A single party will need at least 137 of the 272 directly-elected seats to be able to form the government on its own.