Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), declared this Friday (9) victory in the general elections in the Asian country, even though the vote count was not has been closed and there is no clear winner.
According to Reuters, independent candidates, most of them supported by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is in prison, won 92 of the 225 seats in the National Assembly already counted. In total, there were 265 seats up for grabs.
Sharif's PML-N obtained 64, while the Pakistan People's Party achieved 50 seats so far.
“The Pakistan Muslim League is the biggest party in the country today, after the elections, and it is our duty to pull this country out of the maelstrom,” Sharif said at a press conference.
“Whoever has the mandate, whether independent or party, we respect the mandate they got. We invite you to sit down with us and help this wounded nation get back on its feet,” said Sharif, who served as Pakistan's prime minister for three terms in the 1990s and 2010s (not consecutively).
He recently returned to Pakistan after a four-year self-imposed exile in London and was freed by the courts from convictions that prevented him from participating in politics.
The election in Pakistan takes place amid a serious institutional crisis, due to the dismissal of then-Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2022 and his subsequent arrest and judicial convictions, in addition to the persecution of members of his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ( PTI).
In recent days, attacks have been recorded in the country and the delay in counting votes after voting, which took place on Thursday (8), has increased suspicions of electoral fraud, denounced by Sharif's opponents.
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