Pakistan Election Results Trickle amid Reported Win of Dozens of Independents Backed by Khan’s Party

Pakistan's former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif (C) gives his thumb impression on a ballot to vote at a polling station during national elections, in Lahore on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)
Pakistan's former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif (C) gives his thumb impression on a ballot to vote at a polling station during national elections, in Lahore on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)
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Pakistan Election Results Trickle amid Reported Win of Dozens of Independents Backed by Khan’s Party

Pakistan's former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif (C) gives his thumb impression on a ballot to vote at a polling station during national elections, in Lahore on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)
Pakistan's former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Nawaz Sharif (C) gives his thumb impression on a ballot to vote at a polling station during national elections, in Lahore on February 8, 2024. (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)

The results of Pakistan's elections are trickling in after an hours-long delay on Friday, a day after the vote that was marred by sporadic violence, a mobile phone service shutdown and the sidelining of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his party.
The Election Commission of Pakistan announced about 60 results for the 266 seats of the National Assembly or lower house of the parliament by noon, showing the party of the country's three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had an edge over others, The Associated Press said.
The remaining results were to be announced by evening, officials said.
Earlier, local media reported victories of dozens of independents backed by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party after the imprisoned Khan was disqualified from contesting the vote because of criminal convictions he contends were politically motivated.
PTI candidates ran as independents after the Supreme Court and Election Commission said they couldn’t use the party symbol — a cricket bat. In Pakistan, parties use symbols to help illiterate voters find them on the ballots. PTI couldn’t hold rallies or open campaign offices, and its online events were blocked, steps it contended were unfair.
The chief election commissioner had previously said the results would be communicated to the oversight body by the early hours of Friday and released to the public after that. But it started happening only on midday Friday. The Interior Ministry attributed the delay to a “lack of connectivity” resulting from security precautions.
Many Pakistani news channels reported that PTI-backed independents were giving the other big parties, led by Sharif and political dynasty scion Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, a run for their money by striding ahead in dozens of constituencies.
Senator Mushahid Hussain, a member of Sharif's party, called the media tallies “probably the biggest election upset in Pakistan’s political history” in the last 50 years. Withheld results were a recipe for disaster, he said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
There are 266 seats up for grabs in the National Assembly, with a further 70 reserved for women and minorities. If no party wins an outright majority, the one with the biggest share of the seats can form a coalition government.
The Election Commission also started announcing the results of the four provincial assemblies in the country. The commission was posting election results on its website more than 15 hours after polls closed.
Sharif struck a confident and defiant note on polling day, brushing off suggestions his Pakistan Muslim League party might not win an outright majority in the parliament. But the mood outside his headquarters was different by nightfall, with sparse crowds and no festivities.
He returned to the country last October after four years of self-imposed exile abroad to avoid serving prison sentences. Within weeks of his return



ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
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ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)

Judges at the International Criminal Court want Hungary to explain why it failed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Budapest earlier this month.

In a filing released late Wednesday, The Hague-based court initiated non-compliance proceedings against Hungary after the country gave Netanyahu a red carpet welcome despite an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

During the visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced his country would quit the court, claiming on state radio that the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, defended his decision to not arrest Netanyahu.

“We signed an international treaty, but we never took all the steps that would otherwise have made it enforceable in Hungary,” Orbán said at the time, referring to the fact that Hungary’s parliament never promulgated the court’s statute into Hungarian law.

Judges at the ICC have previously dismissed similar arguments.

The ICC and other international organizations have criticized Hungary’s defiance of the warrant against Netanyahu. Days before his arrival, the president of the court’s oversight body wrote to the government in Hungary reminding it of its “specific obligation to comply with requests from the court for arrest and surrender.”

A spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment on the non-compliance proceedings.

Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC, a process that will take at least a year to complete, will make it the sole non-signatory within the 27-member European Union. With 125 current signatory countries, only the Philippines and Burundi have ever withdrawn from the court as Hungary intends.

Hungary has until May 23 to submit evidence in its defense.