Pakistani authorities today said full results of the general election would be delayed. Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Babar Yaqoob said counting had been delayed due to technical failures in an electronic reporting system and the tallying is now being done manually.
Stating that there is no conspiracy, nor any pressure to delay the results, Yaqoob said the delay is due to because the collapse of result transmission system.
According to reports, with 30 percent of the total vote counted, Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), inched closer to becoming the single largest party with nearly 120 seats. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League is ahead in 65 seats, while former President Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party is leading in 44 seats and others in 17 seats.
Pakistan’s National Assembly comprises a total of 342 members, of which 272 are directly elected whereas the rest – 60 seats reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities – are selected later through proportional representation among parties with more than five per cent of the vote. A party can only form the government if it manages to clinch 172 seats in total.
A single party will need at least 137 of the directly elected seats to be able to form the government on its own.
The voting, which was held yesterday, was marred by a suicide attack and poll-related violence that claimed at least 35 lives.
Meanwhile, PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif expressed strong reservations over the polling process, saying his party does not accept the preliminary results shared by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference in Lahore late last night, he complained that the details were not shared with the agents of PML-N in many constituencies.
Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and Mumbai 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed’s candidates are trailing in all the seats they contested.
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