Candidates loyal to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan edged ahead in Pakistan's election Friday, in front of the two dynastic parties believed favoured by the military, as the vote count entered its final leg.
Imran Khan was barred from contesting Thursday's election and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was subject to a sweeping crackdown -- blocked from holding rallies and taken off the ballot, forcing candidates to run as independents.
But the latest results in a slow counting process showed PTI loyalists had so far won around 70 of the more than 200 seats called for the 266-member national assembly. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had won around 60 and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) around 40 as night fell Friday.
Most of the seats won by PTI-backed candidates were in its stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while results were still coming in for the most populous province of Punjab, won by PTI in the last election but where the family of former premier Nawaz Sharif's PML-N has historically held sway.
Unofficial tallies on local TV stations had independents in the lead for many of the remaining seats up for grabs.
Candidates who run as independents can nominate affiliation to any party within 72 hours of victory -- a practice that frequently leads to horse-trading and deal-making in Pakistan politics and which could imperil PTI's success.
"But even if PTI is unable to form a government, the elections show there are limits to political engineering," said Bilal Gilani, executive director of polling group Gallup Pakistan.
"It shows that the military does not always get their way -- that is the silver lining," he told AFP.
The election was marred by violence, mostly in the border regions neighbouring Afghanistan, with 61 attacks nationwide, the interior ministry said Friday.
At least 16 people were killed -- including 10 security force members -- and 54 wounded.
More than 650,000 army, paramilitary and police personnel were deployed to provide security.-AFP
