Pakistan Election Results: The Election Commission of Pakistan, on Monday, released the official results of the elections held last week. Giving the positions of all parties in national and provincial assemblies, the commission provided the full results of the controversial election. The elections were held on Thursday last week, however, the undue delay in clearing official results invited allegations of vote tempering in many constituencies from the opposition parties and the civil society.
Although both imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan's political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and former premier Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have claimed victory, the likelihood of a coalition government is high. This is due to the absence of a clear majority for any single party in the National Assembly.
- Voting Overview:
- 854 national and provincial assembly constituencies participated in the voting.
- Initial results showed 348 successful independent candidates.
- Independent Candidates:
The majority of independent candidates were supported by Imran Khan's PTI.
- Forced to run as independents due to the denial of PTI's electoral symbol (cricket bat) following controversial intra-party elections.
- Political Party Results:
- Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerged as the largest party with 227 seats.
- The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) secured 160 seats.
- Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) claimed third place with 45 seats.
- National Assembly Results:
- Independents won 101 seats according to preliminary results.
- PML-N led by Nawaz Sharif secured 75 seats.
- PPP, led by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, obtained 54 seats.
- MQM-P secured 17 seats.
- Other Parties:
- Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) won four seats.
- PML-Quaid secured three seats.
- Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and Balochistan National Party (BNP) each won two seats.
- Government Formation:
- A party needs to win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the National Assembly to form a government.
- A simple majority of 169 seats is required out of the total 336 seats, including reserved slots for women and minorities (to be decided later).
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About 6,05,08,212 votes were cast from all across the country in the 2024 general elections that were held on the 265 seats of the National Assembly.
According to the local media of Pakistan, President Arif Alvi is required to summon a fresh session of the newly elected national assembly by February 29, as mandated under the constitution of Pakistan. As per Section 91(2) of the Constitution, the president is required to call for the session of the National Assembly within 21 days following the official declaration of election results or the issuance of its notification.
“The National Assembly shall meet on the twenty-first day following the day on which a general election to the assembly is held unless sooner summoned by the president,” the section says.
Pakistani journalist and analyst Nazir Leghari, discussing the political landscape in the country after the election, told PTI Video that a party starts to weaken when it fails to fulfil the desires of the people.
"If people's wishes are not fulfilled then there is anger and the party begins to dilute. Consequently, the people then either become irrelevant or even if they stay (with the party) they are aware that it is not the same situation and a new era has begun," Leghari said.
"Something similar happened with the Pakistan People's Party, the Pakistan Muslim League and PTI... So this is the experience of elections."