Pakistan's former ruling party conceded defeat to cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan ahead of final results from the country's disputed election, which European Union monitors on Friday said the election had not been fought on a level playing field.
Imran, during a speech declaring victory on Thursday, offered to investigate opposition allegations of vote-rigging and said he wanted to "unite" the country under his leadership.
The party of jailed ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif initially rejected the so far incomplete results, but by Friday its leaders appeared to accept that Khan would be the next prime minister.
"(PML-N) would play the role of a strong opposition," said Shehbaz Sharif, the PML-N president and brother of Nawaz Sharif, according to the English-language Dawn newspaper.
Shehbaz Sharif has said the vote count was rigged and vowed to offer evidence to the ECP. Both the PML-N and PPP say their party monitors at many voting centres were either kicked out during counting or had not received the official notifications of the precinct's results, instead being given handwritten tallies they could not verify.
"We are going to sit on opposition benches, despite all the reservations," said Hamza Shehbaz Sharif, a parliamentarian and the nephew of Nawaz Sharif, who is in prison after being convicted on corruption charges he disputes.
The allegations of rigging in Wednesday's election followed a bitter campaign in which Pakistan's powerful military was accused of tilting the race in favour of Khan, and trying to erase democratic gains made since the most recent spell of military rule ended in 2008.
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The EU Election Observation Mission, in its preliminary findings, said the electoral process was "not as good" as the 2013 election and campaign week featured a "lack of equality" that meant it was not a level playing field for all parties.
"Many of our interlocutors acknowledged a systematic effort to undermine the former ruling party through cases of corruption, contempt of court and terrorist charges against its leaders and candidates," chief EU observer Michael Gahler told a news conference. The mission included 120 observers who visited 582 polling stations in all the provinces except Baluchistan.
Gahler said EU observers had not witnessed any military interference in polling stations they assessed.
"On election day, polling was assessed as well conducted and transparent," he said. "However, counting was somewhat problematic with staff not always following the procedures."
Nearly-finalised results also indicated religious parties that fielded more candidates than ever before failed to win any National Assembly seats.
The Allahu Akbar Tehreek party of Hafiz Saeed, who is accused of masterminding the 2008 attacks that killed 166 people in the Indian city of Mumbai, did not win a single seat. Neither did candidates linked to Sunni extremist group Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat.
Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, which campaigns under the rallying cry "Death to Blasphemers" also failed to win any seats, although results indicate it garnered a large following across Punjab.
