Politics

Pakistan in uncertainty over government formation as parties negotiate coalition

Islamabad, Feb 10 (EFE).- Pakistan was gripped by uncertainty on Saturday after the election results of a highly contentious general election did not leave any party with an outright majority prompting talks for a possible coalition government.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, some hundred independent candidates – most of them allied to former prime minister and opposition leader Imran Khan – make up the largest group of winning candidates.

Khan was disqualified from contesting elections and has been in jail facing three prison sentences and more than a hundred cases.

Moreover, the former cricket star’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was dealt a heavier blow as it was stripped of its election symbol of a cricket bat in a country with high illiteracy.

The developments compelled most of the PTI candidates to contest as independents.

With the results of 15 seats yet to be announced, the independents have secured 99 of the 265 seats under contention in the National Assembly, or the Parliament.

The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or PML-N, led by three-time prime minister and Khan’s main rival Nawaz Sharif is second with 73 seats, followed by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) under former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari with 53 seats.

Indications for a possible alliance between Sharif and Bhutto-Zardari emerged after the two leaders met early Saturday, in the company of former President Asif Ali Zardari, father of Bhutto-Zardari.

The PML-N and PPP formed an interim coalition government following Khan’s ouster from power by a no-confidence vote in April 2022.

However, on the eve of the elections Bhutto-Zardari had hinted that he would not be part of a Sharif government.

Nevertheless, for this possible alliance, the results of the remaining 15 seats and the support of the smaller parties remain crucial, given that the PML-N and the PPP only add up to 126 parliamentary votes so far, short of the 133 seats required to form the government.

“We are in contact with the PPP and other small parties’ leadership asking them to join us to form a government and we hope to reach a conclusion soon,” PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb told EFE.

Meanwhile, the independents are almost entirely loyal to Khan and the PTI, given that they were unable to contest under the party symbol.

Khan sent a video message made using artificial intelligence Friday to his followers proclaiming victory.

“Despite suppression and injustices for over two years, we have won the 2024 elections with two-third majority,” Khan said in the message.

Now all eyes are on Khan and the PTI that have been opposed to alliances with their rivals, and alleged electoral fraud to deny them their legitimate number of seats.

“We are going to file almost 100 petitions in courts to challenge the results which have been tempered, as the world has seen,” Ahmed Janjua, a party spokesperson, told EFE. EFE

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