Lahore, Pakistan — Pakistan's 12th general election was declared over on Thursday night amid raucous protests over pre-poll rigging, the suspension of mobile phone services and a bombing that killed at least nine people in the country.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced that vote-counting operations began immediately after the conclusion of voting. Results are expected to start trickling in later in the evening.
Nawaz Sharif, a member of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party and a three-time former prime minister, is considered the favorite to win.
Sharif told the media after the vote that he had no problems with the Pakistan military, the country's main power broker, with whom he has had major disagreements in the past.
His biggest political rival, former Prime Minister Imran Khan, was barred from participating in the election due to his conviction in a corruption case, paving the way for him to become prime ministerial candidate.
Khan, who is currently serving multiple sentences for various convictions, urged voters to be sure to appear in court on voting day.
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was also stripped of its symbol by the ECP, but the party still managed to field independent candidates in a coordinated election campaign.
Earlier, former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Pakistan People's Party voted for Sindh province, where the PPP is particularly strong. PPP will be hoping that with a win it can defy expectations and cause a surprise.
Before voting was scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. local time (3 a.m. GMT), the government announced it would suspend mobile services across the country, citing security concerns.
However, multiple bombings occurred during the day, killing at least nine people in Khyber Pakhtankhwa province in the northwest and Balochistan province in the southwest.
This comes after two bomb attacks on election offices of two candidates in Balochistan province on Wednesday left at least 27 people dead.
After the vote ended, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar said in a statement that it was a “momentous occasion”.
Kakar also praised the enthusiasm of the people of Pakistan and appreciated their participation in the voting process. “The high turnout clearly demonstrates the people's determination to shape our country's future,” he said in a statement. However, reports came in from all over the country that voter turnout that day remained low.
Pakistan has historically had low election turnout. Since 1985, turnout has exceeded 50% of eligible voters only twice: in 2013 (54%) and 2018 (51%).
Of the 128 million people registered to vote this year, more than 45 percent are between the ages of 18 and 35. Election statistics show that since 1997, voter turnout among 18- to 30-year-olds has never exceeded his 40 percent. , reached a high of 37 percent in 2018.
When voting began in Pakistan this morning, all eyes were on PTI voters. The party's supporters had vowed to respond through the Tehir vote in response to the state crackdown since May last year and the current imprisonment of leader Khan.
But at more than a dozen polling stations Al Jazeera visited until 3 p.m., mostly in middle-income and working-class areas of Lahore, voter enthusiasm seemed to be lacking. At one polling station in Mochigate district, fewer than 250 of the approximately 1,400 registered voters turned out to vote.
“I have carried out election duties in the past, but it was never as gruesome as this,” ECP official Mohamed Ashfaq told Al Jazeera.
In Karachi, the country's largest city, voters complained that polling staff were absent at various polling stations and voting in many locations did not start until 3pm local time (10pm Japan time). Some came out.
“This is my third time voting today. I came in the morning and there was no one there. All the rooms were empty. I came in the early afternoon and the rooms were empty and the voting booths weren't set up. People were running around wondering which room to go to. It was a nightmare,” Elham Sheikh, 35, told Al Jazeera.
The ECP has banned exit polls in the country, but voters Al Jazeera spoke to seemed divided between the PTI and PMLN.
Ayesha Siddiqua, a teacher in Lahore, said she has been a lifelong fan of Imran Khan and will vote for him no matter what other political parties offer.
“I have followed him since his cricket days and then the cancer hospital he built,” she told Al Jazeera after voting in Lahore. “To me, he could do no wrong,” said Khan, who built a cancer hospital in Lahore in 1994. It was named after her mother, who died of cancer in 1985.
Other voters, such as Khalid Taimur, a tour guide in Lahore, said their votes were reserved for PMLN supremo Sharif.
“Nawaz Sharif gave us roads, buses and trains. He gave us infrastructure projects that helped the lives of the common man. His legacy is his work, That speaks for itself,” the 52-year-old told Al Jazeera after the vote.
In Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, female voter turnout remains low compared to other parts of the country. The state's tribal traditions often serve as a deterrent to women's mobility in public.
Pakistan's election authority has said that if women's turnout in any constituency is less than 10% of the total votes cast, it may order a new vote there.
“If the total number of women voters in a constituency remains less than 10% of the total votes cast, the Election Commission of Pakistan may, in accordance with the law, invalidate the votes in that constituency and order a re-poll.” the election monitoring agency said. The day before the election, he said this in a message on X (formerly Twitter).
#ECP pic.twitter.com/k9MyQMGdua
— Election Commission of Pakistan (official)🇵🇰 (@ECP_Pakistan) February 7, 2024
Muteeba Naz, 21, came to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, to vote for the first time. “The next government's priorities should be inflation and terrorism, because yesterday more than 20 people were killed in Balochistan,” he told Al Jazeera.
With the country facing an economy in crisis and a volatile security situation in which more than 1,000 people were killed in violent attacks last year, many Pakistanis are hopeful that a government in place can bring some stability to Pakistan. I look forward to the election. A country with a population of 241 million.
But analysts warn that the incoming government may struggle to gain legitimacy because Mr. Khan is a target. And without the trust of Pakistanis, the next prime minister may find it difficult to take steps to help the country combat its myriad challenges, they warned.
Additional reporting from Alia Chughtai in Karachi, Sadullah Akhter in Quetta, and Islam Gul Afridi in Peshawar.
