Are Pakistan elections rigged? Claims made on vote rejection, ballot stuffing

Pakistan Elections 2024: Pakistan awaits the results of a general election which is witnessing a faceoff between two former prime ministers of the country- jailed Imran Khan and back-from-exile Nawaz Sharif. But the former's party has claimed, time and again, that the elections are being altered in favour of Nawaz Sharif who is seeking a record fourth term. Imran Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI) claimed that “Nawaz Sharif should be ashamed of himself for stealing public mandate” as the election body of the country is counting votes.

Sharing a document on X (formerly Twitter), Imran Khan's party PTI said that "the number of total valid votes (in NA 130 Lahore constituency where Nawaz Sharif contested) is greater than total number of votes casted". In another post, the party alleged, "Unusual number of votes rejected in NA-151 (more than 2x the winning margin)".

Member National Assembly, NA-48, Mohsin Dawar said on X, “The Presiding officer and staff at GPS Haji Fateh Khan Kot polling station in my constituency NA-40 North Waziristan have been stuffing ballots very openly and brazenly for PTI's Aurangzeb Khan."

“Such blatant rigging should be a matter of shame for the ECP,” he added.

Pakistan Elections 2024: What do latest results show?

News agency AFP reported that the latest results showed PTI loyalists had so far won around 49 seats in the 266-member national assembly against 42 for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and 34 for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Just over half of constituencies have been called and most of the seats won by PTI-backed candidates were in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Unofficial tallies on local TV stations had independents in the lead for many of the seats up for grabs, it was reported.