What did the US-UK-EU say about Pakistan's vote results?

 

    The final results of the general elections in Pakistan are yet to be announced

The United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU) issued separate statements on the results of the general elections in Pakistan on Friday. The statement expressed concern about last Thursday's election process. At the same time, these countries and alliances have called for an investigation into the allegations of irregularities in the election.

The main contest in this election is between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of Pakistan's former prime minister and currently in prison, Imran Khan, and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the party of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.

However, due to legal hurdles, PTI-backed candidates contested as independents. However, as a result of the vote, both parties claimed themselves as winners.

266 seats in the National Assembly of Pakistan are directly polled. Voting in one seat was earlier postponed after a candidate was shot dead by miscreants ahead of the polls. So this time voting has been done in 265 seats. A party needs to win 134 seats to form a single government.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has announced the results of 250 constituencies till 6 am on Saturday. Out of this, independent candidates have won the most 99 seats. Most of them contested elections with the support of PTI. Then Nawaz's PML-N won 71 seats, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) 53 seats and MQM 17 seats. Apart from this, other parties got 10 seats.

The United States and the EU have accused the United States of interfering in this election. According to the statement, the rights activists were detained in the election. Also, the allegations of irregularities, interference and fraud should be fully investigated.

Imran Khan and his party feel that Pakistan's powerful army is against them ahead of this election. Army has provided support to Nawaz Sharif.

In a statement, the EU said the elections did not have a level playing field for all political parties. Along with this, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech have been found to be lacking. The EU also mentioned in the statement the barriers to internet use.

The US State Department said there were unreasonable restrictions on freedom of speech and assembly. At the same time, incidents of violence and attacks on journalists have also been seen.

US lawmakers such as Democratic Congressmen Ro Khanna and Ilhan Omar have expressed their concern over Pakistan's election. Ro Khanna directly said that the military interfered in the election process. The results of the vote were rigged.

Khanna and Ilhan claim that the US State Department should not recognize the winning party in Pakistan's elections until there is a fair investigation into the allegations of irregularities.

In this regard, Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute of the Wilson Center, a policy research institute based in Washington, said that the statements of the United States and the EU on Pakistan's elections are relatively soft. Especially given the magnitude of the rigging allegations.

On the other hand, in a statement, UK Foreign Minister David Cameron said there were serious concerns about the lack of transparency and inclusiveness in Pakistan's elections.

However, the US, UK and EU have expressed their intention to work with Pakistan's next government. However, no one has congratulated any candidate or party so far.