The counting of Votes in Pakistan’s national elections was underway Thursday after millions voted in an election marred by rigging allegations and a shutdown of mobile phone services, while the country's most popular politician Imran Khan languished in jail, reports AFP.
Pollsters predicted a low turnout from the country's 128 million eligible voters following a lacklustre campaign overshadowed by the jailing of former prime minister Khan, and the hobbling of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party by the military-led establishment.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is expected to win the most seats in Thursday's vote, with analysts saying its 74-year-old founder Nawaz Sharif has the blessing of the generals.
Adding to concerns about the integrity of the vote, authorities suspended mobile phone services just as polls opened and only began to restore them more than three hours after polls shut at 5:00 pm local time (1200 GMT).
The interior ministry said the outage was "to maintain law and order" after two blasts on Wednesday that killed 28 people.
Nighat Dad, a lawyer who runs the not-for-profit Digital Rights Foundation, called the blackout "an attack on the democratic rights of Pakistanis".
"Shutting down mobile phone services is not a solution to national security concerns. If you shut down access to information you create more chaos".
More than 650,000 army, paramilitary and police personnel were deployed to provide security on Thursday.
At least seven officers were killed in two separate attacks targeting election security details, and officials reported a string of minor blasts in southwestern Balochistan province that wounded two people.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
