Candidates backed by Khan’s PTI secure most seats but rival Nawaz Sharif seeks to form coalition

Politicians allied with the former prime minister Imran Khan’s party have defied a military-led crackdown and alleged widespread rigging to win the most seats in Pakistan’s election, but opponent Nawaz Sharif claimed victory and said he would form a coalition government.

Candidates backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party run by Khan who is now serving sentences of more than a decade in jail, claimed a stunning victory after Thursday’s polls, defying all expectations that Sharif, a three-time former prime minister, and his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) would win an easy majority.

Sharif was seen to have the backing of Pakistan’s military, which has long been the country’s political power broker and has a history of meddling in its elections.

Voters across the country, however, appear to have come out in unprecedented numbers to support PTI and Khan. Given the scale of the votes for PTI-backed candidates, according to sources the military was unable to “manage” the results for Sharif as planned.

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  • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    64·
    9 months ago

    This is absolutely hilarious and wonderful to see, for anyone that values fair elections. In the last month, Pakistan has jailed Imran Khan (the guy that just won) on what are possibly trumped up corruption charges, then convicted him and his wife on further “non-Islamic marriage” criminal charges, and even denied Khan’s party the use of their symbol, the cricket bat, in a nation where many do not read and rely on symbols to navigate ballots. The government even turned off phone and internet yesterday to try to fuck up the election for him.

    And those are just the highlights of how diligently power brokers in Pakistan have been trying to get Khan out of the race and their own guy in.

    What this article is saying is that because the people all came out and voted in droves, none of the rigging made any difference: Khan won in a LANDSLIDE in spite of it.

    Remember this when people try to imply that one vote doesn’t matter. EVERY vote matters.

    • randon31415@lemmy.worldEnglish
      69·
      9 months ago

      Seems strange rooting for the anti-American candidate. Also: Former populist non-politician leader that was charged with corrupt bushiness dealings, mishandling US intelligence documents, and being ‘non-religious’ in his sexual affairs then kicked off the ballot? I wondering if this portends what will happen if Trump is behind bars in November…

      Edit: I was talk about myself rooting for Khan, not the OP.

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        17·
        9 months ago

        Seems strange rooting for the anti-American candidate.

        Then you didn’t read my comment. I’m not for or against a given candidate; I am squarely FOR fair elections.

        Also, not every commenter here is American, or even pro-American: who are you to turn every comment into a measure of how pro- or anti-American a comment is?

        EVERYONE has a right to their own opinion based on their own experience and culture, including non-Americans and even non-pro-Americans, and there’s not a goddamn “strange” thing about that at all.