NYTimes

LAHORE, Pakistan — Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, once a political exile deposed by the military, returned to the cusp of power on Saturday, taking a commanding lead in a parliamentary election in which Pakistanis braved Taliban intimidation to cast ballots with historic prospects for the country’s democracy.

Record turnout was reported in several cities, incited by an energized political campaign dominated by the battle between Mr. Sharif and Imran Khan, the former cricket star whose appeal as an anticorruption crusader had many predicting he could play a kingmaker role.

But even with just partial returns in early Sunday, Mr. Sharif’s party appeared to have secured enough seats to form a government easily. His supporters ran cheering through the streets of Lahore, honking horns and, in some instances, firing bursts of celebratory gunshots.

While the raucous election highlighted the vibrancy of Pakistani politics, it also drew attention to the gaping holes in the country’s democracy.

Threats by the Taliban to disrupt voting were borne out in attacks across the country that left at least 21 people dead, including at least 11 in a bombing in Karachi and others in Baluchistan Province, where turnout greatly suffered.

Accusations of widespread vote irregularities in Karachi, the nation’s largest metropolis, led to the invalidation of results from dozens of polling places, officials said. Final results are likely to wait for days.

Even if Mr. Sharif faces no obstacles in forming a government, he will have to deal with a stalled economy, profound infrastructure failure and grave threats from an emboldened Taliban insurgency. Furthermore, he has promised to rein in American influence in Pakistan, leaving questions about the countries’ often-stormy relationship.

The election was Pakistan’s 10th since 1970 but the first in which a civilian government that has served a full five-year term is poised to peacefully hand power to another elected government.

Unlike previous elections, in which the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate was widely accused of vote manipulation and intimidation, this one offered little evidence of involvement by the military, which has ruled Pakistan directly for more than half its 66-year history.

Instead, the country was gripped by election fever, most of it driven by the contest between Mr. Sharif and Mr. Khan. In the final days of campaigning, the momentum appeared to be with Mr. Khan, who electrified voters with a series of mass rallies that tapped into a deep vein of support among young and middle-class Pakistanis in urban areas.

His ratings rose further after he fell nearly 15 feet to the ground at a rally in Lahore on Tuesday, badly injuring his back but winning widespread public sympathy.

But as the results flooded in late Saturday, and television projections gave Mr. Sharif up to 119 of the 268 elected seats on offer, against just 33 for Mr. Khan, promises of a revolutionary “tsunami” led by the former cricket player appeared to have vanished.

That result signaled a victory of sorts for old-style dynastic politics: the Sharifs have dominated Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, since the 1980s, and have cultivated voters for the past five years through development projects financed by the provincial government, which they controlled.

The other loser was President Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party, which led the last government but now seems destined to the opposition benches.

Mr. Khan, however, was poised to capture a valuable consolation prize, one with potentially sharp implications for American policy: control of the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along the Afghan border.

During his campaign rallies, Mr. Khan stridently said he would end C.I.A. drone strikes in the tribal belt, by ordering the Pakistani military to shoot down American aircraft if necessary. And he has said he believes that the Pakistani state should negotiate with Taliban insurgents, not fight them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/world/asia/pakistan-election.html?hp&_r=0