Power comes at a huge price, Imran Khan will have to make compromises: Reham Khan

Islamabad: Pakistan cricket hero turned politician Imran Khan claimed victory Thursday in the country's tense general election marred by allegations of "blatant" rigging by rival parties.

A visibly tired Khan cut a conciliatory tone in a wide-ranging address to the nation following the controversial contest which was also hit by long delays in still unreleased official results. Unofficial projections by various local media outlets showed Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party enjoying a clear lead.

But as the nation was shocked with the results of the election, Reham Khan, former wife of Imran said that the result was clear from quite a long time. Reham, a journalist and author said that power is not easy and that Imran will have to make compromises to show if he is ready for the prime minister’s seat.

"We have been calling him the prime minister select for some time now and I've been saying for a few weeks now that he has been waiting to be crowned. But heavy is the head that wears the crown. The crown comes at a huge price: his integrity. It has cost him all of his integrity, which is a tragic fall for a hero," she was quoted as saying by WION.

"We were successful and we were given a mandate," Khan, 65, said during a live broadcast from his home in the capital Islamabad, adding that there would be "no politician victimisation" of his opponents in the future.

He went on to call the elections the "most transparent" in the country's history.

During the broadcast, Khan vowed to tackle corruption that was "eating our country like cancer" and touched on promises to balance relations with the US that would be "beneficial" for both countries.

Khan also said he was open to a sit-down with arch-rival India to discuss ongoing disputes in the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir which is claimed in full by both nations.

The former all-rounder's statement came several hours after his supporters took to the streets to celebrate winning an election that opponents have said the powerful military fixed in his favour.

However, at the time of his speech, there was no official confirmation of results from the election commission, almost 24 hours after polls closed in Wednesday's vote.

The Election Commission of Pakistan dismissed allegations of manipulation, blaming the delay on glitches in new, untested counting software.

"The election was conducted in a fair and free manner," said secretary Babar Yaqoob, adding that the results would be announced Friday. He said 82 percent of the results were in.

Observers including a mission from the European Union are due to give their own observations Friday on the voting process.

The military, which had been accused of seeking to manipulate the vote in Khan's favour in the months leading up to the polls, has not yet commented on the situation. The armed forces and Khan have previously denied allegations of intervention.

'Outright rigging'

Late Wednesday, the once-mighty Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which had been in power since 2013, rejected the results because of "outright rigging", and vowed it would use "all political and legal options for redressal of these glaring excesses".

"What they have done has pushed Pakistan back 30 years... People will not bear it," the party's leader Shahbaz Sharif, brother of jailed former premier Nawaz Sharif, said.

He said the party was due to meet Thursday to decide a way forward. There was no immediate reaction from PML-N to Khan's broadcast.

Other major parties also alleged fraud, including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), whose chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari echoed the PML-N's claim that party representatives were barred from monitoring the count.

The size of Khan's lead against the PML-N, when many analysts had predicted a coalition would be likely, was also increasing concern over the process, analysts said.

"The surprisingly high seat total for PTI, even as the votes continue to be counted, will be enough to trigger the suspicions of the PPP and PML-N," said Michael Kugelman, an analyst at the Wilson Center in Washington.

At least one party -- Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), which blockaded the capital Islamabad for weeks last year over blasphemy -- has already announced it is planning protests.

"This is complete chaos," said political analyst Azeema Cheema, saying she was "very concerned" about what comes next.