The vote counting for the Pakistan national elections showed no clear majority, but a strong performance by Imran Khan loyalist candidates.
Pakistan faces days of political horse-trading after the final few election results released early Saturday showed no clear majority, but a strong performance by independent candidates loyal to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) defied a months-long crackdown that crippled campaigning and forced their candidates to run as independents with a combined showing in Thursday's election that still challenged their chief rivals.
But after long delays in results that prompted further allegations that the military establishment had engaged in vote-rigging, the army-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) declared victory as the party with the largest number of seats.
However, to form a government, the party founded by three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will be forced to cut deals with rivals and independents.
There were reports late Friday of leaders from other parties arriving in PML-N's power base of Lahore for talks.
"We don't have enough of a majority to run the government ourselves, therefore we invite the other parties and candidates who have been successful to work with us," Sharif said at his party headquarters in Lahore.
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