Early results in Pakistan’s national election suggest ex-cricket star Imran Khan is on course to win the vote but fall short of an overall majority.
With unofficial results counted in nearly half of polling stations, Mr Khan’s PTI party is in the lead, but his rivals allege major vote-rigging.
Results are trickling in slowly, but election officials deny rigging, saying there are simply technical problems.
Voting day saw bloodshed, with many killed in a blast at a polling station.
With 47% of polling stations reporting, the Election Commission had Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party leading in 113 of the 272 National Assembly constituencies being contested, according to Pakistan’s Dawn Newspaper.
Oxford-educated Mr Khan, who led Pakistan to victory in cricket’s World Cup in 1992, first entered politics in 1996 but struggled for years on the political sidelines.
In the lead-up to this vote, the 65-year-old faced accusations that he was benefiting from military interference against his rivals.
This election will mark only the second time that a civilian government has handed power to another after serving a full term in Pakistan.
But the party of disgraced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has rejected the results, as have a host of smaller parties, all alleging vote-rigging and manipulation.
“The way the people’s mandate has blatantly been insulted, it is intolerable,” Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and brother of the former prime minister.
The party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the historically liberal PPP, is widely expected to come third.
It is now fronted by Ms Bhutto’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a 29-year-old Oxford University graduate.
Why does this election matter?
Pakistan has a population of nearly 200 million, and is a nuclear-armed rival to India, a key developing economy and one of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nations.
The country has been ruled on and off by the military during its 71-year history, so this election is significant because it is considered the country’s second consecutive democratic transition.
The election has been seen as a contest between Mr Khan’s PTI party and Mr Sharif’s PML-N.
Mr Sharif, who won the last election, has been jailed for corruption after a scandal stemming from the Panama Papers leak.
Are the elections clean?
Both the run-up to the vote, and the vote count itself, have been highly controversial.
Ahead of the elections, the PML-N complained of a targeted crackdown by the security establishment, with the alleged help of the courts, in favour of the PTI party. The Pakistani military denied interfering in politics.
Independent media, meanwhile, say there have been blatant attempts to muzzle them, while the human rights commission has said there are “ample grounds” to question the legitimacy of the polls.
After the polls closed on Wednesday, several political groups alleged that vote rigging was taking place in polling stations – something denied by election officials.
Representatives from several parties said that their polling agents were expelled from polling stations during vote count and were denied certified copies of results – breaching election procedures.
Analysts have also highlighted unusual delays in the announcement of unofficial results in dozens of constituencies, especially in the crucial province of Punjab which has been a stronghold of PML-N.
Election officials say delays in releasing the results are simply down to failures in the electronic reporting system and that votes are now being counted manually.
Who is Imran Khan?
- Previously an international cricket star who led Pakistan to a World Cup victory in 1992
- Educated at the University of Oxford
- Attracted media attention due to his playboy lifestyle and three marriages
- Launched his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 1996 but spent years on the political sidelines
- Has campaigned against corruption and dynastic politics in Pakistan
- Faces accusations – which he denies – that his party is benefitting from alleged meddling by the military
