Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday emerged as the single largest party in the July 25 general elections, winning 116 National Assembly seats out of the contested 270 parliamentary constituencies, according to the election commission’s final results.
The final announcement of the results has been marred by delays, causing anger among the leaders of losing parties that levelled allegations of fraud.
Jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 64 seats and former President Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People's Party (PPP) with 43 seats are placed at number two and three respectively, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Aml Pakistan (MMAP) came fourth with 13 seats, it said.
Thirteen independent candidates have also won and would play an important role as the PTI needs their support to form a government.
The Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQMP), which ruled the city for decades, managed to get just six seats.
The ECP has also released the total votes each political party got in the elections.
The PTI is on the top with 16,857,035 votes, followed by the PML-N with 12,894,225 and the PPP with 6,894,296 votes. The independent candidates with 6,011,297 votes are the fourth largest group in terms of votes cast, it said.
Among the religious parties, the MMAP got 2,530,452 votes, the Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan 2,191,679 and the Allah-o-Akhbar Tehreek 171,441 votes, the ECP said.
Final voters’ turnout
The ECP also issued the final voters’ turnout in elections to both national and provincial assemblies, showing 51.7 % turnout for the National Assembly (NA), 55 % for the Punjab Provincial Assembly, 47.6 % for Sindh, 45.5 % for Khyber-Pakhtuakhwa and 45.2 % for the Balochistan Provincial Assembly.
The provincial results have been also announced and the PML-N has become the single largest party with 129 seats in Punjab, the PPP with 76 in Sindh, the PTI with 66 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Balochistan Awami Party with 15 in Balochistan.
The Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), a party of hardline Sunni Brailvi sect followers, clinched two seats in the Sindh Assembly. It participated in the elections for the first time after it tasted success and fame during the siege of Islamabad last year.
However, the Allah-o-Akhbar Tehreek, which was used by loyalists of Hafiz Saeed was badly thrashed.
