Lahore, Pakistan – After raucous protests charging pre-poll manipulation, a cell service suspension and bomb blasts that killed not less than 9 individuals, Pakistan’s twelfth normal election was declared closed.
The Election Fee of Pakistan (ECP) stated poll counting began quickly after the closure of the polls on Thursday night. The results are expected to start out trickling in through the evening.
Three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is taken into account the frontrunner.
Sharif spoke to the media after casting his vote, declaring he by no means had any issues with the Pakistani navy, the first powerbroker within the nation, with whom he has had main variations prior to now.
His path to a different potential premiership was cleared after his chief political rival, ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, was barred from collaborating within the election as a result of a conviction in a corruption case.
Khan is at the moment in jail serving a number of sentences for a spread of convictions however had urged his voters to make sure that they got here out on election day.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) additionally had its social gathering image taken away by the ECP, nevertheless it nonetheless managed to place up impartial candidates in a coordinated marketing campaign.
Earlier within the day, former International Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Social gathering (PPP) solid his vote within the province of Sindh, the place the PPP is especially sturdy. The PPP will hope it could possibly spring a shock and upset predictions by rising victorious.
Earlier than the voting began at 8am (03:00 GMT), the federal government introduced the suspension of cell companies throughout the nation, citing safety issues.
But there have been a number of bomb blasts through the day, which killed not less than 9 individuals within the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southwestern province of Balochistan.
This adopted two bomb blasts in Balochistan on Wednesday at election places of work of two candidates, which resulted within the deaths of not less than 27 individuals.
After the closure of the polls, interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar stated in a press release that the elections have been a “momentous event”.
Kakar additionally praised the keenness of the individuals of Pakistan and expressed appreciation for his or her participation within the polling course of. “The excessive voter turnout is a transparent indication of public dedication to shaping the way forward for our nation,” he stated. Nevertheless, stories emerged from throughout the nation that voter turnout had been subdued through the day.
Pakistan traditionally has seen low voter turnout in elections. Since 1985, it has exceeded 50 % solely twice: in 2013 (54 %) and 2018 (51 %).
Of the 128 million individuals registered to vote this 12 months, greater than 45 % of them are between the ages of 18 and 35. In response to election statistics, from 1997 onwards, the voter turnout of these aged 18 to 30 by no means surpassed 40 %, reaching a excessive of 37 % in 2018.
When polling began in Pakistan on Thursday morning, all eyes have been on PTI supporters. With a state crackdown on the social gathering since Might and now the imprisonment of Khan, the social gathering’s supporters had vowed to reply by their votes.
Nevertheless, at greater than a dozen polling stations that Al Jazeera visited till 3pm, principally in Lahore’s middle-income and working-class localities, voter enthusiasm appeared lacklustre. In a single polling station within the Mochi Gate space the place almost 1,400 voters have been registered, fewer than 250 had proven up.
“I’ve performed election duties prior to now, and it was by no means so dismal,” ECP official Mohammed Ashfaq instructed Al Jazeera.
A number of complaints emerged from Karachi, the biggest metropolis within the nation, the place voters alleged that polling workers at varied polling stations have been absent and in lots of locations voting didn’t start on time, beginning as late as 3pm (10:00 GMT).
“That is my third try to vote at the moment. I got here within the morning. There was nobody right here. All of the rooms have been empty. I got here earlier within the afternoon, and the rooms have been empty and polling cubicles weren’t arrange. Folks have been working backwards and forwards making an attempt to determine which room to go to. It’s been a nightmare,” Elhaam Shaikh, 35, instructed Al Jazeera.
Whereas the ECP has barred exit polls within the nation, the voters Al Jazeera spoke to gave the impression to be cut up between the PTI and PML-N.
Ayesha Siddiqua, a instructor in Lahore, stated she had been a lifelong Imran Khan fan and would vote for him no matter what different events have to supply.
“I’ve been following him since his cricket days after which the most cancers hospital he constructed,” she instructed Al Jazeera after casting her vote in Lahore. “For me, he can do no mistaken.” Khan constructed a most cancers hospital in Lahore in 1994 named after his mom, who had died of the illness in 1985.
One other voter, Khalid Taimur, a tour information in Lahore, stated his vote was reserved for the PML-N supremo.
“Nawaz Sharif gave us roads, buses, trains. He gave us infrastructure initiatives that helped the lifetime of widespread individuals. His legacy is his work, which speaks for itself,” the 52-year-old instructed Al Jazeera after voting.
In Balochistan, voter turnout for girls remained low in contrast with the remainder of the nation. Tribal traditions within the province typically function a deterrent to girls shifting about in public.
Pakistan’s election physique stated that if the full feminine turnout in any constituency was lower than 10 % of the full votes, it would order recent voting there.
“If the full feminine voters’ rely in a constituency stays beneath 10% of the full votes solid, the Election Fee of Pakistan, as per legislation, can void the voting in that constituency and order for re-polling,” the electoral watchdog stated in a message on X, previously often known as Twitter, a day earlier than the elections.
#ECP pic.twitter.com/k9MyQMGdua
— Election Fee of Pakistan (OFFICIAL)🇵🇰 (@ECP_Pakistan) February 7, 2024
Muteeba Naz, 21, got here to solid her first-ever poll in Quetta, Balochistan’s capital. “The subsequent authorities’s precedence needs to be inflation and terrorism as a result of yesterday, over two dozen individuals have been killed in Balochistan,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
With the nation coping with an economic system in disaster in addition to a unstable safety scenario with greater than 1,000 individuals dying final 12 months in assaults, many Pakistanis view the elections with hope that they may produce a authorities able to bringing some stability to the nation of 241 million individuals.
However analysts have warned that the subsequent authorities could battle to gain legitimacy due to the focusing on of Khan. And with out the belief of Pakistan’s individuals, they cautioned, the subsequent prime minister could battle to take steps to assist the nation combat its myriad challenges.
With extra reporting from Alia Chughtai in Karachi, Saadullah Akhter in Quetta and Islam Gul Afridi in Peshawar.
