PPP leads in Sindh, BAP in Balochistan: unofficial results

KARACHI: The PPP secured 56, MQM-P secured 20, PTI 15 and the Grand Democratic Alliance 12, out of the 130 Sindh Provincial Assembly seats, and in Balochistan, the Balochistan Awami Party managed to win 12, MMA from 5, BNP 5 and PTI 3 from a total of 51 Balochistan Assembly seats, as the preliminary and "unofficial" results of General Election 2018 began to trickle on late night Wednesday.

Earlier in the day hundreds of thousands of Pakistan’s nearly 106 million registered voters stepped out to cast their ballot, including women in areas where they previously stood disenfranchised.

Towards the end of the day the political parties and commentators alleged foul play as the flow of results across the evening and night was "sensationally slow", prompting the Election commission of Pakistan to concede to "delay due to a technical glitch," the Election Commission of Pakistan Secretary Babar Yaqoob confirmed early Thursday morning. Addressing the media, Election Commission of Pakistan Secretary Babar Yaqoob said the delay is not the result of any 'wicked conspiracy' or pressure. He said they have been delayed as the automated Result Transmission System malfunctioned at the results data entry stage. "The RTS system had not been tested in Pakistan," he remarked.

The polling began at 8AM across the country's 85,307 polling stations and continued until 6PM despite calls by several major parties, including PML-N, PPP and PTI, to extend the polling time by an hour. The parties complained of “a slow voting process” and sought more time to facilitate voters — a request dismissed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). With spate of violence in during the run up to the election claiming lives of three candidates in targetted attacks and culminated with a suicide blast outside a polling station in Quetta that claimed at least 30 lives.

Doors of polling stations were closed as the clock struck 6pm. However, the voters present inside continued to cast their votes. As many as 12,570 candidates contested for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the country's 11th General Election. Counting and compiling of results was underway till late night at the polling stations.

The Geo News began transmitting unofficial results from 7PM onwards in line with the ECP's code of conduct as they poured from different constituencies.