Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif claimed victory in national elections saying that his party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has emerged as the largest in the results.
The PML-N supremo said that Pakistan needs to take active steps to come out of its current crisis for which all institutions should together play a positive role, without disclosing how many seats his party had won as counting was still underway in 265 seats that went to the polls.
Nawaz Sharif said that his deputies will meet other political parties to talk about forming a coalition government.
“We don’t have enough of a majority to form a government without the support of others and we invite allies to join the coalition so we can make joint efforts to pull Pakistan out of its problems,” he said.
This comes after his party’s senior leader said that they will seek talks with rival Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s group on forming a coalition in Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif’s close aide Ishaq Dar made the comments on local television channel Samaa TV.
PML-N is “in a position” to form a government and will win close to 90 out of the 265 seats up for grabs, he said.
Pakistan Elections 2024: What results show so far?
Results have been announced for 156 National Assembly seats. As per the election commission of the country, candidates backed by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party won 62 seats so far while the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif secured 46 seats. Results of 110 more seats are still pending and any party would need 169 seats for a government forming majority.
Pakistan Elections 2024: When will full results be announced?
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said that the delay in results was due to a day-long mobile network shutdown imposed by the government during voting. The slow process resulted in allegations by Imran Khan’s party that ballots were being tampered with in order to ensure Nawaz Sharif’s victory in the elections.