Pakistan – (warsoor) – Early results from Pakistan’s election suggest ex-cricket star Imran Khan is on course to become prime minister.
With nearly half the votes counted from Wednesday’s election, Mr Khan’s PTI party is in the lead.
It is expected to fall short of an overall majority and to seek coalition partners. Officials deny claims of vote rigging made by Mr Khan’s rivals.
Campaigning has been marred by violence. On voting day a bomb killed 31 people at a polling station.
With votes counted in 47% of stations, Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party was leading in 113 of the 272 National Assembly constituencies being contested, Pakistan’s Dawn Newspaper reported, citing Election Commission figures.
Oxford-educated Mr Khan, who led Pakistan to victory in cricket’s World Cup in 1992, first entered politics in 1996 but struggled for years on the political sidelines. In the lead-up to this vote, the 65-year-old faced accusations that he was benefiting from military interference against his rivals.
This election will mark only the second time that a civilian government has handed power to another after serving a full term in Pakistan.
But the party of disgraced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has rejected the results, as have a host of smaller parties, all alleging vote-rigging and manipulation.
“The way the people’s mandate has blatantly been insulted, it is intolerable,” Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and brother of the former prime minister.