Pakistan's cricket legend Imran Khan declares victory in a divisive general election marred by a long delay in ballot counting and allegations of vote rigging by most opponents.

The election results may be on halt but preliminary numbers put PTI firmly in the lead, and most people have more or less called it: Imran Khan will be Pakistan's next Prime Minister.

Unlike in the by-polls held for a National Assembly constituency in the city around a year ago, religious parties and groupings fail to make their presence felt in the July 25 general election.

Last month, speaking in Nawabshah, former president Asif Ali Zardari pledged that, if the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won the upcoming elections, every household in Pakistan that doesn't already have a member in government services, would get the chance to have at least one member in a government job.

Pakistan wakes to electoral chaos with the outgoing ruling party denouncing "blatant rigging" in the pivotal general election and rejecting unofficial, partial results suggesting victory for former cricket champion Imran Khan.

Like the PML-N, the PPP and several other parties expresses serious concerns over the delay in the release of official results and the alleged expulsion of their polling agents from polling stations during counting of the votes for general elections 2018.

With counting of votes still underway, the PTI is currently in the lead, followed by the PML-N and the PPP, based on results from 26 percent of polling stations nationwide. Rigging is alleged each time, but the sheer scale of it is what casts a shadow on these elections. Dawn talked to their analysts for their take on the elections.

Imran Khan’s wish — a set of wishes including one where he asked for a government without difficult allies — has come true. Amid protestations in a shocked Lahore by the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the signs are that they are going to have the same Pakistan running through from Chitral to Sadiqabad. This is quite a remarkable capture given how fractured the Punjab-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stretch has appeared politically over the last few years.

Throughout the day today, citizens, journalists and political parties complained about the slow voting process.

Massive delays and allegations of rigging dominate the early hours of Thursday in Pakistan, where official election results are still not announced even 15 hours after polling ended. Preliminary results, however, indicate that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has obtained a clear edge over other parties as results trickle in.

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad yesterday said the largest expense with regards to the

Women in Dir, Kohistan, and North and South Waziristan made history yesterday when they cast their votes for the first time.

Pakistani cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan led in projected partial results of a general election yesterday, as the party of his jailed chief rival, ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, rejected the eventual result as "blatantly" rigged.

Pakistani women who had pledged to defy men in their village by voting for the first time ultimately did not exercise their democratic right in yesterday's election, citing intimidation by their husbands.

The Pakistan Election Commission yesterday rejected requests to extend the polling time after political parties accused authorities of

Total seats in parliament 342

Pakistani women who had pledged to defy men in their village by voting for the first time ultimately did not exercise their democratic right in Wednesday's election, citing intimidation by their husbands.

The PPP concluds its election campaign without the active participation of Asif Ali Zardari.

The chiefs of the three biggest competing parties the General Election 2018, PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, cast their votes as polling went underway on Wednesday.

At least 31 people are killed and dozens injured in a suicide bomb attack on a polling station in restive southwest Pakistan as millions voted in a nationwide election.