Pakistan Elections – What to Expect?
Sharif’s party won the most seats by a single party in Thursday’s election, but supporters of imprisoned Khan, who ran as independents instead of as a single bloc after his party was barred from the polls, won the most seats overall.
By Agencies
Former Pakistani prime ministers and bitter rivals Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan on Friday both declared victory in elections marred by delayed results and militant attacks, throwing the country into further political turmoil.
Sharif’s party won the most seats by a single party in Thursday’s election, but supporters of imprisoned Khan, who ran as independents instead of as a single bloc after his party was barred from the polls, won the most seats overall.
Sharif said his party would talk to other groups to form a coalition government as it had failed to win a clear majority on its own. Sharif’s announcement came after more than three-quarters of the 265 seats had declared results, more than 24 hours after polling ended on Thursday when 28 people were killed in militant attacks.
The results showed independents, most of them backed by Khan, had won the most seats – 98 of the 245 counted by 1830 GMT.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 69 while the Pakistan People’s Party of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated premier Benazir Bhutto, got 51.
The rest were won by small parties and other independents.
The main electoral battle had been expected to be between candidates backed by Khan, whose PTI won the last national election, and the PML-N. Khan believes the powerful military is behind a crackdown to hound his party out of existence, while analysts and opponents say Sharif is being backed by the generals.
The military has dominated the nuclear-armed country either directly or indirectly in its 76 years of independence from Britain but for several years it has maintained it does not interfere in politics.
Pakistan went to the polls on Thursday in a widely watched national election that was marred by widespread violence. The elections are expected to lead to the formation of a new government to lead the crisis-ridden South Asian nation for the next five years.
A parliamentary democracy, voting in Pakistan took place for seats in the federal legislature, called the National Assembly, and four provincial, or state, legislatures.
128 million Pakistanis out of a population of 241 million were eligible to vote – all those above 18. Polling booths were open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Voters cast their ballots for two legislators to represent their constituency – one federally and the other provincially. There were 5,121 candidates contesting for the federal legislature and 12,695 for the provinces.
The National Assembly consists of 336 seats – 266 are decided through direct voting on polling day, while 70 reserved seats – 60 for women and 10 for non-Muslims – are allotted according to the strength of each party in the house.
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Victorious candidates become members of the National Assembly. Independent candidates have the option to join any party after the elections. Once constituted, the National Assembly holds a parliamentary vote to select a leader of the house, who becomes the prime minister. A successful candidate must show a simple majority in the house – that is, the support of at least 169 members.
-Once a prime ministerial candidate wins the vote in the National Assembly, they are sworn in as prime minister. The new prime minister picks cabinet ministers, who form the federal government.
-A similar process is followed at the provincial level to pick a chief minister and a provincial government.
