Final Pakistan vote count confirms big Nawaz Sharif win
Sharif’s party won 123 of the 269 directly elected national assembly seats, the election commission said.
ISLAMABAD: The final vote count from weekend’s nationwide elections in Pakistan on Tuesday confirmed a big win for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s party.
The figures released by the country’s election commission show Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N party will likely get a majority in the national assembly, setting him up to be prime minister for the third time.
As the new-old premier, the 63-year-old Sharif,a devout Muslim and a populist, is expected to supplant President Asif Ali Zardari as the international face of a nuclear power whose increasing instability and Islamic militant havens are a global concern, especially at a time whenthe West is looking to end the war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Sharif’s party won 123 of the 269 directly elected national assembly seats, the commission said. There are 272 directly-elected seats in the lower house of parliament, but races for three seats were not held because a candidate had died. A new vote will be scheduled for those seats after alternative names are proposed.
Independent candidates who normally join the party that forms the government won 25 seats. The combination would give Sharif’s partymore than the 137 directly elected seats they need to have a majority.
There are an additional 70 seats for women and minorities that are apportioned to the parties based on how well they do in the general election.
The outgoing ruling Pakistan People’s Party won 31 seats. The party was battered by allegations of corruption and complaints that it did nothing to address power blackouts and inflation. Almost all of the seats that it did win were in the party’s stronghold of Sindh province….