{"id":58532,"date":"2024-02-10T16:00:06","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/us-uk-and-eu-call-for-probe-into-pakistan-elections-over-claims-of-irregularities-and-fraud\/"},"modified":"2024-02-10T16:00:06","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T16:00:06","slug":"us-uk-and-eu-call-for-probe-into-pakistan-elections-over-claims-of-irregularities-and-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/us-uk-and-eu-call-for-probe-into-pakistan-elections-over-claims-of-irregularities-and-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"US, UK, and EU call for probe into Pakistan elections over claims of \u2018irregularities and fraud\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>The United States, Britain and the European Union have separately expressed concerns about Pakistan\u2019s electoral process in the wake of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1812604\/early-results-spring-big-surprises\">vote on Thursday<\/a> and urged a probe into reported irregularities.<\/p>\n<p>The main battle was between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif\u2019s party and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1812970\/pti-claims-victory-in-centre-kp-and-punjab\">candidates<\/a> backed by ex-prime minister Imran Khan. Both declared victory separately.<\/p>\n<p>Elections were held for 265 seats in the National Assembly and a political party needs 133 seats for a simple majority.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1812973\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The US and the EU both mentioned allegations of interference, including arrests of activists, and added that claims of irregularities, interference and fraud should be fully investigated.<\/p>\n<p>Imran is in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1768528\">jail<\/a> and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has been barred from the polls. Independents, most of them backed by the PTI founder, had won the most seats \u2014 98 of the 245 until early hours of the day \u2014 while Nawaz\u2019s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party had won 69 seats.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1812972\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Imran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1751767\">believes<\/a> the powerful military is behind a crackdown to hound his party out of existence, while analysts and opponents say Nawaz is being backed by the generals.<\/p>\n<p>The EU statement noted a \u201clack of a level playing field\u201d, attributing that to \u201cthe inability of some political actors to contest the elections\u201d and to restrictions to freedom of assembly, freedom of expression and internet access.<\/p>\n<p>The US State Department said there were \u201cundue restrictions\u201d on freedoms of expressions and assembly while noting violence and attacks on media workers.<\/p>\n<p>Some US lawmakers such as Democratic US Representatives Ro Khanna and Ilhan Omar also expressed concerns, with Khanna saying \u201cthe military is interfering and rigging the result.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Khanna and Omar urged the State Department not to recognize a winner until investigations are conducted into allegations of misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington, said both EU and US State Department statements were \u201crelatively mild \u2026 considering the great scale of the rigging that went down.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, the UN human rights office denounced violence against political parties and candidates. It voiced concern over the \u201cpattern of harassment, arrests and prolonged detentions of leaders and supporters\u201d of Khan\u2019s party.<\/p>\n<p>The EU, the US and Britain said they would work with the next government and did not congratulate any candidate or party.<\/p>\n<p>British foreign minister David Cameron\u2019s statement noted \u201cserious concerns raised about the fairness and lack of inclusivity of the elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Multiple legal cases have been brought against Imran, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1769083\">disqualified<\/a> him as a candidate and sentenced him to long prison terms. He denies wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>Imran was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1684168\">ousted<\/a> in 2022 after falling out with the country\u2019s powerful military, which denies meddling in politics. His party <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1426772\">won the last national election<\/a> in 2018.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States, Britain and the European Union have separately expressed concerns about Pakistan\u2019s electoral process in the wake of a vote on Thursday and urged a probe into reported irregularities. The main battle was between former prime minister Nawaz Sharif\u2019s party and candidates backed by ex-prime minister Imran Khan. Both declared victory separately. Elections [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/02\/101522449091098.png?r=153316","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}