Khan wins, but no majority

Islamabad : Cricket hero Imran Khan has swept to an emphatic victory in a disputed Pakistan election, official figures showed yesterday, but without a majority he will need to enter a coalition to take power in the nuclear-armed country. Rival parties, including the outgoing Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), have alleged “blatant” rigging over the vote count. The PML-N, which claims it was the target of the military manipulation, has vowed to fight the results in court.

But for now Khan’s victory represents an end to decades of rotating leadership between the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) that was punctuated by periods of military rule. The Election Commission (ECP) said Friday that with only a handful of seats left to count, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) enjoys a strong lead with 115 seats, and will be the biggest party in parliament.

The count indicates PTI will not achieve the 137 seats needed in the National Assembly to form a majority government in its own right. Analysts had long predicted that if Khan took power it would have to be via coalition -- but the size of his lead still took many by surprise, and helped fuel suspicion over vote rigging. But analyst Ayesha Siddiqa said observers may have underestimated the depth of feeling among Pakistan’s growing middle class. “This is a middle class revolution,” Siddiqa said.