Pakistan polls: Counting begins, Imran Khan's PTI ahead of Nawaz Sharif's PML-N
Islamabad, July 25 (IBNS): As the polling for Pakistan's general election concluded on Wednesday evening, early trends in counting showed Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ahead of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Amid allegations of manipulation by the army and a blast in Quetta that left 29 people killed, Pakistan's election is all set to draft history.
Polling started at 8 am in the morning and continued till 6 pm.
"Polling began at 8AM across the country's 85,307 polling stations and continued until 6PM despite calls by several major parties, including PML-N, PPP and PTI, to extend the polling time by an hour," reported Geo News.
As many as 12,570 candidates contested for a total of 849 seats in the country with the main battle is being fought between ex-Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan's 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.
Before the elections, the campaigning period witnessed terror attacks which even left several candidates killed.
Quetta Blast:
On a day Pakistan votes to elect its next Prime Minister, a suicide blast outside a polling station near Eastern Bypass in Quetta region of the country left at least 29 people killed on Wednesday, media reports said.
The deceased included three cops and two children.
The blast left 35 others injured.
Condemning the incident, PTI's Imran Khan tweeted:
Condemnable terrorist attack in Quetta by enemies of Pak seeking to disrupt our democratic process. Saddened by the loss of innocent lives. Pakistanis must defeat the terrorists' design by coming out in strength to cast their vote.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) July 25, 2018
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