Pakistan election results 2024 LIVE Updates: Sharif had dismissed notion of a coalition, expressing desire for a single party to govern Pakistan for full term.
Pakistan election results 2024 : Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister of Pakistan, had expected his party to win handily in the legislative elections, giving him the opportunity to serve a fourth term as leader of the nation. But Sharif now has a difficult path to become prime minister.
With a surprisingly strong showing, independent candidates backed by his imprisoned opponent, Imran Khan, were dominating the vote count on Friday. This went against claims made by a national rights organization and supporters of Khan that the election was rigged in Sharif’s favor.
Due to this unexpected change of events, which also affected Sharif’s intentions and the support of the security establishment, he announced efforts to form a coalition government on Friday.
A day before, after casting his vote, Sharif had categorically rejected the idea of forming a coalition and declared his preference for one party to lead Pakistan for a complete five-year term.
Due to prior criminal convictions, Khan, a well-known former cricket player who is now an Islamist politician with a sizable grassroots following, was not permitted to run in Thursday’s election. He contends that politics played a role in both his sentencing and the other ongoing legal lawsuits against him.
The candidates of Khan’s party were forced to run as independents since they could not use the party symbol, a cricket bat, to help voters who were not literate recognize them on ballots.
At least 99 seats were won by independents, the majority of whom were devoted to Khan. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had 53 seats, whereas the PML-N had 71.