Pakistan’s electoral commission is expected to announce the full results of a disputed election on Friday, paving the way for the winner, Imran Khan, to begin searching for coalition partners.
Although Khan appeared to fall short of the 137 seats needed for a majority in the National Assembly, his better-than-expected results mean he should have no problems forming a government with a handful of small coalition partners.
Provisional results released by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday morning showed Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), or Pakistan Movement for Justice party, had won 109 seats out of the 251 races where counting had ended. The National Assembly has 272 seats in total.
Jailed former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had bagged 63 seats, the results showed. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was third with 39 seats.