[🇵🇰] Pakistan General Elections -- 2024

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ECP orders re-polling in specific constituencies of NA-88, PS-18, PK-90​

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has ordered re-polling in specific polling stations of NA-88 (Khushab II), PS-18 (Ghotki I), and PK-90 (Kohat I) following alleged rigging on Feb 8.

In a statement, the ECP spokesperson announced re-polling at 26 polling stations of NA-88 after a mob reportedly set fire to polling material at the returning officer’s office. The re-polling is scheduled for February 15.

Re-polling in PS-18, attributed to reported confiscation of polling material by unidentified people, is also slated for Feb 15.

Likewise, re-polling will be conducted at 25 polling stations of PK-90 due to damage caused to polling material by terrorists, the ECP said.

Furthermore, the ECP has sought a report from the district regional officer within three days regarding alleged vandalism at one polling station of NA-242 (Karachi Keamari-I).

 

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Karachi police use tear gas, baton charge to disperse TLP rally​

Karachi police have fired tear gas shells and baton-charged a rally of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) against alleged rigging in the general elections.

Soldier Bazaar police Station House Officer (SHO) Shahzad Ilyas said that TLP workers tried to gather at a busy intersection at Numaish Chowrangi on main M.A. Jinnah Road near Mazar-i-Quaid.

As law enforcers did not allow them to gather there, the TLP workers staged a sit-in at Nishtar Park in Soldier Bazaar, the SHO said, adding that the police resorted to “light” baton charges and tear gas shells to disperse the crowd.

TLP spokesperson Rehan Khan claimed that around 40 workers were detained while the SHO said around 17-18 activists were taken into custody. The detainees were later released without charges.

 

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Contacts, discussions with other parties have begun: PML-N’s Aurangzeb​

PML-N Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that contacts and discussions have begun with other parties such as the PPP and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan.

She said the mandate of all parties would need to be respected.

Aurangzeb said the PML-N would not exclude “other parties” from the process since they were a “political reality”.

 

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Pakistan elections: Against the odds, Khan's PTI proves support is solid​

BBC
By Caroline Davies in Lahore Pakistan correspondent

Reuters

Today's results are both clear and complicated.

Independent candidates - many of whom would have run under the banner of the PTI party but were prevented from doing so - have taken the largest number of seats.

However the PML-N, led by pre-election frontrunner Nawaz Sharif, can currently claim to be the largest party.

What is clear is that Imran Khan's PTI party has proved that its popularity is not a social media bubble, but has a real and committed support base.

It came into this election with its founder disqualified and in prison (he is already serving a three-year sentence for corruption, and has been handed further jail terms in recent weeks), and its cricket bat symbol removed from the ballot - an electoral blow in a country with low literacy rates.

Khan, who was ousted as prime minister by his opponents in 2022, has said the numerous cases against him are politically motivated.

Forced to run as independents, PTI's candidates were unable to hold large rallies, with some candidates in jail, and others in hiding.

The party says that its supporters have been intimidated and picked up by the police while it tries to run its campaign - allegations the authorities have always denied.

Despite all of that, PTI-linked candidates appear to have won more seats than any other group.

The PML-N - the party that most observers believed to have the backing of the powerful military - is running in second place.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari - the son of Pakistan's former president Asif Ali Zardari and murdered ex-PM Benazir Bhutto - is in third.

The real complication is what happens next.

The election results may change in the coming days as candidates from different parties challenge the results. But that is not the only thing to watch out for.

Pakistan requires all independents to join a political party within 3 days from the moment they are officially declared or they must stay independent.


PTI will need to come up with a solution soon.

 

[Old School]

Pakistan elections: Against the odds, Khan's PTI proves support is solid​

BBC
By Caroline Davies in Lahore Pakistan correspondent

Reuters

Today's results are both clear and complicated.

Independent candidates - many of whom would have run under the banner of the PTI party but were prevented from doing so - have taken the largest number of seats.

However the PML-N, led by pre-election frontrunner Nawaz Sharif, can currently claim to be the largest party.

What is clear is that Imran Khan's PTI party has proved that its popularity is not a social media bubble, but has a real and committed support base.

It came into this election with its founder disqualified and in prison (he is already serving a three-year sentence for corruption, and has been handed further jail terms in recent weeks), and its cricket bat symbol removed from the ballot - an electoral blow in a country with low literacy rates.

Khan, who was ousted as prime minister by his opponents in 2022, has said the numerous cases against him are politically motivated.

Forced to run as independents, PTI's candidates were unable to hold large rallies, with some candidates in jail, and others in hiding.

The party says that its supporters have been intimidated and picked up by the police while it tries to run its campaign - allegations the authorities have always denied.

Despite all of that, PTI-linked candidates appear to have won more seats than any other group.

The PML-N - the party that most observers believed to have the backing of the powerful military - is running in second place.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari - the son of Pakistan's former president Asif Ali Zardari and murdered ex-PM Benazir Bhutto - is in third.

The real complication is what happens next.

The election results may change in the coming days as candidates from different parties challenge the results. But that is not the only thing to watch out for.

Pakistan requires all independents to join a political party within 3 days from the moment they are officially declared or they must stay independent.


PTI will need to come up with a solution soon.

Pakistan law requires all independents to join a political party within three days from the moment they are officially declared or must stay independent. The critical question is how PTI will manage it by racing against time.

 

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Can you please clarify what you are suggesting here?

Pakistan has its own internal mechanisms led by its Generals that will take care of its issues, no outside agency -CIA or any other - involvement is needed.

 

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What the international media had to say about the elections that were everything but predictable​

“You might be wondering why it has taken us a couple of days to talk about Pakistan politics and Pakistani elections, one of our favourite subjects; that’s because one, the situation has been fast-moving and second, the situation has been much too cluttered also for me to hold forth on it…”

This is how The Print’s editor-in-chief Shekhar Gupta started his Cut The Clutter episode 48 hours after the general elections. And cluttered undoubtedly it has been.

Following the turbulent year Pakistan’s politics has faced, the international media’s coverage of the country’s elections — undisputedly controversial even before the date was announced — has been hard-hitting, to say the least.

From the pre-poll phase to election day irregularities to the post-poll counting process — the attempts to subvert the PTI that were blatantly executed have not gone unnoticed; neither has the fact that PTI-backed candidates clinched majority National Assembly seats in spite of them.

Here, Dawn.com looks at some of the reporting and analysis from across the globe on the elections that were, contrary to the pre-poll predictions, anything but predictable.

 

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Farhatullah Babar questions ECP delay in uploading Forms 45, 47 on website​

Former PPP senator Farhatullah Babar has questioned the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) delay in uploading Form 45 and Form 47 of every constituency on its official website.
In a post on X, he stated that the electoral watchdog could have uploaded the data to “refute allegations of complicity”.