Pakistan's Khan set for coalition talks as full vote count announced
Updated: 2018-07-28 16:43
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's likely new prime minister Imran Khan is expected to launch coalition talks on Saturday with smaller parties after the electoral commission announced long-delayed full results of an election.
Khan's party scooped up 16.86 million votes in a better-than-expected performance, trouncing the party of jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif, which finished second with 12.89 million votes.
But the 116 seats by Khan's lawmakers was not enough to give him a majority in the 272-seat National Assembly without coalition partners, and he has ruled out both of the other two major parties, calling them as corrupt.
The poll has been marred by long delays in counting and complaints of rigging by Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party. Some of the smaller religious parties are threatening street protests if the poll is not re-run.