PTI wins vote but no majority

Cricket hero Imran Khan has swept to an emphatic victory in a Pakistan election criticised by foreign observers yesterday, but without a majority he will need to enter a coalition to take power in the nuclear-armed country.The pivotal election has been branded “Pakistan’s dirtiest”, after widespread claims in the months leading up to the vote that the powerful military was trying to fix the playing field in Khan’s favour.European Union election observers expressed concerns that there was “a notable lack in equality of opportunity” in the vote, which was “not as good” as the country’s previous election in 2013 (see accompanying report).Rival parties, including the outgoing Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N), have alleged “blatant” rigging over the vote count, and met late yesterday to discuss the results.The PML-N, which claims it was the target of the military manipulation, has vowed to fight the results in court.However, for now Khan’s victory represents an end to decades of rotating leadership between the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that was punctuated by periods of military rule.The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said yesterday that with only a handful of seats left to count, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) enjoys a strong lead with 117 seats, and will be the biggest party in parliament.The count indicates that the PTI will not achieve the 137 seats needed in the National Assembly to form a majority government in its own right.The PML-N had 64 seats, the results showed, while the PPP, led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was third with 43 seats.Analysts had long predicted that if Khan took power it would have to be via coalition – but the size of his lead still took many by surprise, and helped fuel suspicion over vote rigging.Khan campaigned on promises to end widespread graft while building an “Islamic welfare state”.Now the former World Cup cricket champion will have to partner with independents and smaller parties, a task analysts said should be straightforward.“That will not be a problem ... the independents know that the establishment is inclined toward Imran Khan,” retired general and analyst Talat Masood told AFP, using a word widely understood in Pakistan to mean the military.The vote was meant to be a rare democratic transition in the Muslim country, which has been ruled by the powerful army for roughly half its history, but was marred by violence and allegations of military interference.The ECP issued the results after being under fire for delays in vote-counting.The commission dismissed the hold-up as a technical glitch.Khan, during a speech declaring victory on Thursday, offered to investigate opposition allegations of vote-rigging and said he wanted to “unite” the country under his leadership.The PML-N party of jailed ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif initially rejected the so far incomplete results, but yesterday its leaders appeared to accept that Khan would be the next premier.“We are going to sit on opposition benches, despite all the reservations,” said Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, a parliamentarian and the nephew of Nawaz Sharif, who is in prison after being convicted on corruption charges he disputes.“(The PML-N) would play the role of a strong opposition,” said Shehbaz Sharif, the PML-N president and brother of Nawaz Sharif, according to the English-language Dawn newspaper.Shehbaz has said the vote count was rigged and vowed to offer evidence to the ECP.Both the PML-N and the PPP say their party monitors at many voting centres were either kicked out during counting or had not received the official notifications of the precinct’s results, instead being given handwritten tallies they could not verify.