Pakistan Election 2024: PML-N Emerges as Top Contender in Closely Watched Polls

Polling in Pakistan began on Thursday in the closely watched election of the crisis-marred country, with Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) emerging as a top contender after a month-long aggressive campaign. Sharif, 74, will be eyeing the premiership for a record fourth time.

Pakistan Election 2024 Live Updates: Voting Begins Amid Polarisation, Militancy; Mobile Services Suspended

A total of 226 National Assembly seats are up for voting, along with reserve seats. Polls predict a low turnout from the country’s 128 million eligible voters following a lacklustre campaign overshadowed by the jailing of former prime minister Imran Khan, and the hobbling of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party by the military-led establishment.

Pakistan media reports said that PML-N will likely emerge as the single largest party and the Pakistan Peoples Party as a distant second followed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and other parties. Concerns about the election’s fairness were raised by American Congress members amid observed pre-poll rigging. “The Pakistani government should uphold the democratic principles of a free and fair election. Pakistanis deserve to exercise their right to vote and do so free from fear of harassment and intimidation as they go to the polls in tomorrow’s election,” Rep. Elissa Slotkin wrote on X on Wednesday.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf: candidates are contesting the polls independently after the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the election commission to deprive his party of its iconic election symbol cricket ‘bat’. The contest also involves the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who has been declared as the party’s prime minister face.

Nearly 650,000 security personnel have been deployed nationwide as authorities were busy setting up polling stations to enable more than 12.85 crore registered voters to cast their ballot in the general elections. Stepped-up security is imperative given the spree of violence with the latest being two devastating bomb blasts targeting election offices on Wednesday in the restive Balochistan province that saw at least 30 people killed and more than 40 others injured.