Imran Khan's PTI marches ahead amid 'glitches' in Pakistan election

Massive delays in counting and allegations of rigging dominated the early hours of Thursday in Pakistan where official poll results were still awaited even 15 hours after voting ended Preliminary results indicate Pakistan TehreekeInsaaf PTI has obtained a clear edge over other parties with 119 in their kitty as unofficial results continue to pour inAlthough PTI workers and supporters started celebrations before the final results no statement or even a tweet has been issued by the former cricker himself on the victoryHis spokesperson Naeemul Haque however tweeted that the PTI chief will address the nation at 2 pm in celebration and recognition of the massive support received from the people of Pakistan in the 2018 elections which was a contest between the forces of good and evilIn Punjab with preliminary results from 50 per cent polling stations available with ECP PMLN is currently holding its lead on 129 provincial seats but PTI is closing in with a lead on 122 seatsImran Khans party is clearly steering ahead in KhyberPakhtunkhwa with a lead on 64 seats against Muttahida MajliseAmal MMA which is currently leading on 12 seats as per reports from 35 per cent polling stations in the provinceThe preliminary results from 37 per cent polling stations in Sindh show PPPP leading on 75 seats followed by PTI on 22 seatsIn Balochistan Balochistan Awami Party BAP is leading on 12 provincial seats followed by Balochistan National Party BNP on nine seats based on unofficial results from 35 per cent polling stationsAccording to Geo News Awami National Party leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour conceded defeat to PTIs Shaukat Ali his competitor on Peshawars NA31 seat saying The results indicate that Imran Khan is a favourite leader of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa I am a democratic person and I admit the defeatCounting is still going on at the polling stations of different constituenciesAccording to PTV news Imran Khan has maintained a massive lead over PMLNs Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in Islamabad constituency The PTI chief was pitted against former Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the crucial National Assembly seatThe voter turnout was recorded at 5055 per cent of the nearly 106 million electorates similar to the previous electoral contest in 2013Television visuals showed election workers sorting through massive piles of paper ballots at polling stations across the countryPakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz PMLN President Shahbaz Sharif at a midvote count press conference said his party rejects the poll resultsIn a tweet he said the party had rejected the results due to manifest and massive irregularitiesPakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also said he had not received any official results from any constituency where he was contesting despite it being past midnightMy candidates have been complaining that polling agents have been thrown out of polling stations across the country Inexcusable and outrageous he tweetedA delay has been reported in the transmission of election results due to the breaking down of the Election Commission of Pakistans Results Transmission System RTS which is being run through a software powered by National Database and Registration Authority NadraThe Election Commissions secretary Babar Yaqoob flatly denied allegations of vote count manipulationShortly before Sharif spoke state television said that just onefifth of the votes had been counted so far an unusually slow count that further fuelled suspicion of riggingYaqoob said the votecounting system which was untested had crashed adding There is definitely no conspiracy no one wants to influence the resultsA single party will need to bag at least 137 of the directly elected seats to be able to form the government on its ownAs many as 12570 candidates were in the electoral fray for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the countrys 11th general electionCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Except for the change in the headline the story has been provided ASIS AS AVAILABLE without any verification or editing from our side Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever