ISLAMABAD – In Punjab, with results from nearly one third polling stationsresults, PML-N is currently leading the race with 130 provincial seats butPTI is closing in with 120 seats.
Meanwhile, PTI is clearly steering ahead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 62seats against ANP, which currently has 10 seats, as per reporting from 16pcpolling stations in the province.
Counting is still going on at the polling stations of differentconstituencies.
PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif said his party rejects the poll results. Ina tweet, he said the party had rejected the results “due to manifest andmassive irregularities”.
“Form-45 was not given to our agents, results were stopped and votes werecounted in the absence of our polling agents. This is both unbearable andunacceptable,” he said.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also tweeted saying he had not receivedany official results from any constituency where he was contesting, despiteit being past midnight. “My candidates [have been] complaining [that]polling agents have been thrown out of polling stations across the country.Inexcusable and outrageous.”
PPP’s Sherry Rehman also claimed that “there has been a clear trend ofinterference, in which all parties except one are being pushed to the wall”.
“The whole election could be declared null and void considering just whathas occurred over the last three hours,” she said, adding that the partyexpects its complaints to be addressed by midnight.
Awami National Party leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour conceded defeat to PTI’sShaukat Ali, his competitor on Peshawar’s NA-31 seat, saying: “The resultsindicate that Imran Khan is a favourite leader of the people of KhyberPakhtunkhwa. I am a democratic person and I admit the defeat.”
48pc counting has been done in NA-9 (Buner), with PTI’s Sher Akbar Khan inthe lead with 25,239 votes, according to *PTV News’* unofficial preliminaryresults. ANP’s Abdur Rauf is the runner-up with 14,865 votes.
44pc counting has been done in NA-79 (Gujranwala-I), with PML-N’s candidateNisar Ahmed Cheema in the lead with 618 votes, according to *PTVNews’* unofficialpreliminary results. PTI’s Muhammad Ahmed Chattha is the runner-up with 587votes.
According to *AFP*, Gallup Pakistan estimated voter turnout at between 50to 55 per cent in an electorate of nearly 106 million — similar to theprevious contest in 2013.
According to data released by ECP, a total of 3,459 candidates — 1,623 fromPunjab, 824 from Sindh, 725 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 287 fromBalochistan — were cleared to run for the 272 general seats of the nationalassembly. However, elections in two constituencies — NA-60, NA-108 — werelater postponed by the commission.
A single party will need to bag at least 137 of the directly elected seatsto be able to form the government on its own.
In the event that a party is unable to secure a “simple majority”, there isa hung parliament. This is when no single party can make government,leaving room for the formation of a coalition government of winningcandidates from various political parties.