Vote counting in Pakistan is under way on Thursday as millions of people await the results of the national elections marred by violence, rigging allegations by the opposition and mobile service disruptions.
Local media started sharing unofficial results an hour after the polling closed at 5 pm (1200 GMT). There are more than 90,000 polling stations and consolidated results were expected to take a few more hours.
Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, chief election commissioner and the military issued separate congratulatory messages to the nation on what they said “successful” conduct of the elections.
The military said that the polling day was “generally peaceful” but at least 12 people, mostly security officials, have been killed in numerous attacks by militants aiming to disrupt the national elections.
The attacks occurred in at least 51 places in the country’s volatile south-western and north-western regions that border with Afghanistan and Iran.
At least 10 security personnel were among the dead, the military’s statement adds. As many as 39 people have been wounded and five militants were also killed.
Around 600,000 security personnel including 137,000 troops have been deployed to guard the vote in the nuclear-armed Islamic republic.
The security concerns led the authorities to close the borders with neighbouring Afghanistan and Iran and suspend mobile and internet services.
Rights group Amnesty International termed the decision to “suspend telecommunications and mobile internet services on an election day is a blunt attack on the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly."
After more than 12 hours, the services are being restored in the country but several major cities still face the shutdown.
Millions of people defied deadly attacks to queue up to vote for only a third transfer of power between civilian governments in the coup-prone nation in several decades.
The party of Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif already claimed victory as the vote counting began.
Hamza Shehbaz, a nephew of Sharif and a candidate for the national legislature, said in the eastern city of Lahore his party would win a majority.
“God willing, we will reach comfortably a simple majority,” Shehbaz told reporters outside the polling station after casting his vote.
The party of Sharif’s main rival, Imran Khan, accused the authorities of political engineering, citing the suspension of mobile and internet services.
“This is brazen political engineering,” said Raoof Hasan, spokesman for Khan’s party.
Long queues were seen in cities like Lahore in the east, as voting gathered steam in the afternoon after a slow start in the morning.
The polling sites were tightly guarded by police and the military after twin bombings by militants a day earlier killed more than two dozen people in the province of Balochistan.
The South Asian nuclear power with a population of more than 240 million was holding elections in the hopes of easing a turbulent political upheaval in recent years, with both Sharif and Khan being removed from office prematurely, and the country’s economy sinking to the lowest level.
More than 128 million people were eligible to vote, making it the fifth largest democracy in the world.
Sharif was a front-runner to lead the country for a record fourth time in public opinion surveys ahead of the polls.
Khan is languishing in jail after convictions on multiple graft and moral charges days ahead of the polling. He was banned from running and his party is not on the ballot.
“If you want to address the issues of this country, then one party should get the full mandate," Sharif said as he cast his vote in his native city and political stronghold Lahore.
Sharif promised to tame inflation and stabilize the economy.
“This is my dream and I wish to materialize it," Sharif said.
People who voted on Thursday hoped the exercise would bring order to the chaotic Islamic republic.
“I know it isn’t easy. The elections aren’t fair, but I have voted because my country must get better,” said Uzma Hussain, an 18-year-old student of business analytics at a local university in Islamabad.
The 43-year-old Aster Moris, from an impoverished Christian neighbourhood in the capital, came to the polling station hoping her vote would give the country a leadership that is honest and caring.
“We need the incoming government to give people some respite from inflation and joblessness,” she said.
