Pakistan Election Result 2024 Highlights: Former PM Nawaz Sharif's party claims victory in national polls

Pakistan Election Result 2024 Live: Political banners and flags of the political parties competing in the election hang across a street in Karachi.

Pakistan Election Result 2024 Highlights: Following a national election on Thursday, Pakistan experienced notable delays in the vote count, prompting the country's election commission to issue a late-night warning to polling officers, urging them to promptly release results, even ten hours after polls had closed. Pakistan's political landscape is predominantly shaped by three major parties: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

The Election Commission of Pakistan began announcing results more than nine hours after voting came to an end.

The National Assembly, comprised of 336 seats, sees 266 candidates elected through direct voting, while the remaining 70 seats are reserved. Among these reserved seats, 60 are designated for women and 10 for non-Muslims, allocated based on each party's representation in the Assembly. Securing a simple majority requires a minimum of 133 seats, but it's speculated by many analysts that the election outcome might not yield a decisive winner.

Key highlights so far:

• Initially, former Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, representing the PML-N party led by his brother Nawaz Sharif, secured victory in the NA-123 seat from Lahore, contributing to the party's total of 43 seats.
• However, despite PML-N's performance, independent candidates supported by the jailed Imran Khan-led PTI party emerged victorious in 61 parliamentary seats.
• The PPP, led by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, managed to win 34 seats and others won 15 seats.
• Zafar Iqbal, the special secretary at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), attributed the delay in announcing results to an "internet issue," which caused the first official results for a constituency to be announced more than ten hours after polling closed.
• Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party encouraged individuals to remove passwords from their personal WiFi networks via a social media post, aiming to facilitate internet access for anyone nearby.
• With the counting process continuing throughout the night, a clearer electoral landscape is expected to emerge by early Friday.

(With reports from Dawn citing Pak Election Commission results)