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Just Earth News | @justearthnews | 26 Jul 2018
-1532583715.jpg "Pakistan General Elections: Imran Khan's PTI leads, opposition cries foul")
Islamabad: As counting of votes for Pakistan's general elections continued on Thursday, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) maintained a strong lead over jailed former PM Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
After commencing at 8 am, voting took place on Wednesday till 6 pm and counting of votes started later on in the day.
Partial results of the general elections have been declared so far with the PTI leading on 114 National Assembly seats, while the PML-N trails behind with 64 and the PPP-Parliamentarians (PPP-P) is at third spot with 42 seats. The figures emerged on reporting of 47 percent of polling stations results.
Delay in declaring results
The Pakistani Election Commission earlier said that "technical difficulties" were behind the unprecedented delay in declaring the result of the polls.
Chief Election Commissioner Muhammad Raza Khan was quoted as saying by local Dawn News: "I am aware that the delay in announcement of results has caused some annoyance. But it [Results Transmission System (RTS)] was a new system and we were implementing it for the first time. Therefore, there was some delay.”
PML-N rejects poll results
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has rejected the poll results due to 'manifest & massive irregularities'.
He tweeted: "Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) wholly rejects the results of General Elections 2018 due to manifest & massive irregularities. Form 45 was not given to our agents, results were stopped & votes were counted in the absence of our poll agents. This is both unbearable & unacceptable!."
Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) wholly rejects the results of General Elections 2018 due to manifest & massive irregularities. Form 45 was not given to our agents, results were stopped & votes were counted in the absence of our poll agents. This is both unbearable & unacceptable!
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) July 25, 2018
He said: "The mandate of the millions of people who came out to vote has been humiliated. Our democratic process has been pushed back by decades. Had the public mandate been delivered in a fair manner, we would have accepted it happily."
PTI-PML-N battle to win Pakistan
As many as 12,570 candidates contested for a total of 849 seats in the country with the main battle being fought between PML-N and PTI.
The political battle also saw the participation of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto.
The period of campaigning for the polls ended on Tuesday midnight.
Political parties worked hard to earn greater public support for the polls.
Nawaz Sharif's PML-N will be working hard to earn a second term.