On election day itself, there were allegations of voting rigging, with authorities shutting down Pakistan’s mobile phone network for hours.
“There has been a concerted effort to hijack the election,” PTI information secretary Rauf Hasan told AFP late on Friday.
“They did not succeed because people have a deep commitment to Khan.”
Acting Interior Minister Gohar Ijaz defended the “difficult decision” to suspend mobile phone services on security grounds.
“We were fully aware that the suspension of mobile services would impact the transmission of election results across Pakistan and delay the process, however, we had to choose between this delay and the safety of our citizens,” he said in a statement on Friday. It was absolutely straightforward.”
Digital rights activist Usama Khilji said the mobile service blackout “reinforces the popular perception that the elections were rigged by the deep state”.
But Mohammad Zubair, a 19-year-old street vendor in Lahore, said PTI supporters would not accept PML-N’s victory.
“Everyone knows how many seats Khan’s independent candidates have won,” he said. “They have no emblem, no captain, no flag, or banner, and yet we have won on the field.”