The latest news from Pakistan’s election shows that independent candidates supported by Imran Khan’s PTI party are winning.
Independents won 101 seats in the National Assembly. BBC found that 93 of the candidates who won the election were supported by PTI.
This means they have more seats than ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s party, who won 75 seats. It is not clear who will be the next government.
As the argument continues, independent candidates who lost have filed many court cases accusing vote cheating.
Both the PTI and Mr. Sharif’s PMLN want to be the next government, even though PTI was not allowed to participate in the election.
The result was unexpected because people thought Mr Sharif’s party, which is backed by the powerful military, would win. They believed this because Mr Khan had been jailed for various charges and his party was not allowed to be on the ballot.
To be in charge, a candidate needs to have the support of at least 169 seats in the National Assembly.
Bilawal Bhutto from the PPP, which got the third most votes, said they haven’t talked to Imran Khan’s PTI or Nawaz Sharif’s PMLN. The PMLN said that Mr Bhutto’s father had a casual meeting with Mr Sharif’s brother in Lahore.
Out of the 366 seats in the National Assembly, 266 are chosen by voting and 70 are saved for specific groups – 60 for women and 10 for non-Muslims. These seats are given to parties based on how many seats they already have in the assembly.
According to Pakistan’s rules, independent candidates cannot get reserved seats in parliament.
On Sunday, the police stopped people from going on some streets near the electoral commission building in Rawalpindi to prevent expected protests. Also, the police in Islamabad said they would do something about the people protesting.
The leader of PTI asked people to protest peacefully outside the offices of the electoral commission because they were worried about fake election results.
On Saturday, Mr Sharif asked other parties to work with him to form a government together because he is popular with the military.
Experts say Pakistan might have a long time without stable politics.
Dr Farzana Shaikh from the Chatham House think tank told the BBC that it’s unlikely for the Khan-linked independent politicians to be allowed to lead the government. Many people are worried that any alliance between Mr. Sharif and the PPP could create a weak and unstable coalition.
Six PTI-supported candidates who did not win their seats are trying to overturn the results by taking legal action in the courts.
One of the candidates is Yasmin Rashid who competed against Mr. Sharif in Lahore. The people asking for something say that there was cheating in changing the election results on some papers.
Officials from Pakistan say that nothing wrong has happened.