Pakistan election: Imran Khan leads as bloodshed and accusations of foul play taint historic democratic vote | The Independent

26 Luglio 2018 0 Di luna_rossa

More than 350,000 army personnel stationed across the country, as suicide bombing kills at least 31

Pakistan voted on Wednesday in a historic general election that was as bitter, heated and bloody as expected following weeks of acrimonious campaigning.

Ex-cricket star Imran Khan held a clear lead in early results on Thursday morning but the count was running painfully slow and well behind schedule. Amid claims of vote rigging, election officials insisted there was “no conspiracy”, blaming technical failures for delaying a result which should have been known by 2am.

Wednesday’s vote was marred by a major terror attack in the city of Quetta near the Afghanistan border, where a suicide bomber drove a motorbike into a crowd of people near a polling station. Witnesses told The Independent the target appeared to be a police van, and there were at least five security officers among the 31 dead.