Pakistan’s Khan, Sharif claim election win, despite no clear majority

Protests erupted across the country over delays as final results of Thursday’s elections have not yet been released.

Pakistan faces a period of uncertainty with the election results showing no clear majority and two opposing political leaders, Nawaz Sharif from Pakistan Muslim League (PMLN) and Imran Khan from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), declaring victory.

Full results of Thursday’s elections were still not in for nine of the 265 seats contested late on Saturday.

Independent candidates, mostly linked to jailed leader Khan’s PTI, are well ahead with 102 seats, according to the latest tally posted on the election commission’s website. Meanwhile, Sharif’s PMLN is in second position, having secured 73 seats, followed by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) with 54.

“This is probably the most controversial election in Pakistan’s history,” said Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad.

He said the chairman of PTI, Gohar Ali Khan, is confident his party will be in the national parliament as well as in the province of Punjab, where they are claiming to have a majority. They have also swept the polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Meanwhile, PMLN’s Sharif, who also claims to have won the polls, said he would seek to form a coalition government. And the PPP’s Zardari stressed there cannot be a formation of a federal government, as well as in Punjab and Balochistan provinces, without his PPP party.

According to Al Jazeera’s Abid Hussain, two days after the polls have closed, a split mandate has emerged among the big three political powers and there is little clarity about what comes next.

“With such a split, the big question now rests on who will be able to form a government in Pakistan, a