Pakistan’s cricket legend Imran Khan declared victory Thursday in a divisive general election and said he was ready to lead the nuclear-armed country after a long delay in ballot counting and allegations of vote rigging by opponents. “God has given me a chance to come to power to implement that ideology which I started 22 years ago,” Khan, 65, said in a televised speech from his house near the capital Islamabad.
But supporters of jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who accuse Khan of colluding with the army, said the vote count was rigged and termed it an assault on democracy in a country that has a history of military rule.
Oxford-educated Khan called for “mutually beneficial” ties with Pakistan’s on-off ally the United States, and offered an olive branch to arch-foe India, saying the two nations should resolve the long-simmering dispute over Kashmir.
In a speech peppered with populist pledges, Khan promised to create jobs for the poor and announced he would turn the palatial prime minister’s official residence in the capital into an education facility instead of living in it.
His success in the election is a stunning rise for an anti-corruption crusader who has spent much of his political career on the fringes of Pakistani politics. An icon of Pakistani cricket and a London playboy, he has transformed himself into a pious, firebrand nationalist.
With about half the votes counted from Wednesday’s election, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, or Pakistan Movement for Justice, was in a commanding lead in the Muslim-majority nation, the country’s election commission said.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and rival Pakistan Peoples Party both said their party monitors in many voting centers were either kicked out during counting or had not received the official notifications of the precinct’s results, but instead got hand-written tallies that they could not verify. Khan has staunchly denied allegations by PML-N he is getting help from the military, which has ruled Pakistan for about half of its history and still sets key security and foreign policy.
The army, which dismisses allegations of meddling, deployed 371,000 soldiers at polling stations across the country, nearly five times the number as in last election in 2013. Khan offered to investigate all the claims of rigging and said he wants to “unite” the country under his leadership.
With 48 percent of the total vote counted, Khan’s PTI was listed by the ECP in its provisional results as leading in 113 of 272 contested National Assembly constituencies.
Sharif’s PML-N was ahead in 64 constituencies, and the PPP, led by the son of assassinated two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, led in 42 constituencies. Although Khan still appeared likely to fall short of the 137 seats needed for a majority in the National Assembly, he should have no problems finding coalition partners from smaller parties and independents.
Reuters
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