Imran Khan’s unsportsmanlike win in Pakistan

SOME 22 years after Imran Khan founded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to break open the country’s corrupt dynastic politics, the 65-year-old former cricket star was waiting, as The Economist went to press, for official confirmation that his party had won the most seats in Pakistan’s general election. Projections suggested a tally of around 120 seats: short of a majority of the 272 elected seats in the lower house, but enough to form a ruling coalition with independent MPs rather than having to haggle with a serious rival party. Mr Khan looks to be the next prime minister. But his victory is far from sportsmanlike, in as tainted and perilously disputed an election as this one.

The doubts were long there. The outgoing majority party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had warned that the army was “engineering” a victory for Mr Khan. The claim was echoed by civil-rights groups, the press and rival parties. The visas of an EU election-monitoring team were mysteriously delayed. Yet few expected widespread ballot-fixing, as in the days when generals used to stuff ballot-boxes full as sandbags.