Pakistan voting ends; results expected soon amid charges of manipulation
Al Jazeera
Bomb blasts and the suspension of mobile services mar Pakistan’s election. Results could start coming in within hours.
Lahore, Pakistan – After raucous protests charging pre-poll manipulation, a mobile service suspension and bomb blasts that killed at least nine people, Pakistan’s 12th general election was declared closed.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said ballot counting started soon after the closure of the polls on Thursday evening. The results are expected to start trickling in during the night.
Three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is considered the frontrunner.
Sharif spoke to the media after casting his vote, declaring he never had any problems with the Pakistani military, the primary powerbroker in the country, with whom he has had major differences in the past.
His path to another potential premiership was cleared after his chief political rival, ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan, was barred from participating in the election due to a conviction in a corruption case.
