ISLAMABAD: Pakistanis are to vote on Wednesday in the third consecutive general elections in their nation's 71-year-long history to take place without political upheaval, a crisis or a military intervention.
Four military governments had ruled Pakistan for almost half of its existence and in its young democracy, no civilian prime minister has ever completed a full, five-year term in office without some sort of crisis. In some cases, parliaments were dissolved, a prime minister was ousted or replaced, the military staged a coup or early elections were forced.
Here is a timeline encompassing major political and other events in Pakistan's history:
— Aug. 14, 1947: Pakistan emerges as a sovereign state after getting independence when the departing British left India and split the subcontinent;
— Sept. 11, 1948: Pakistan's founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah dies;
— Oct. 16, 1951: Pakistan first prime minister, Liaquat Ali Khan, is assassinated in a gun attack at a rally in the city of Rawalpind, triggering political instability;
— Oct. 7, 1958: President Iskander Mirza abolishes the constitution and declares martial law; Gen. Muhammad Ayub Khan, then army chief becomes administrator;
— Oct. 27, 1958: Ayub forces the president to step down; Mirza is sent to exile in Britain where he later dies; Ayub declared himself president;
— March 25, 1969: After months of rioting in West and East Pakistan, Khan hands over power to army chief Gen. Agha Mohammed Yahya Khan;
— Dec. 7, 1970: East Pakistan-based Awami League wins general elections; Yahya Khan delays transfer of power, triggering widespread rioting in East Pakistan; civil war breaks out;
— Dec. 16, 1971: Pakistan troops surrender in East Pakistan after Indian armed intervention in the civil war; East Pakistan becomes independent Bangladesh;
— Dec. 20, 1971: Yahya Khan resigns, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto becomes president; a parliamentary system of government is adopted and Bhutto becomes prime minister;
— July 5, 1977: Army chief Gen. Ziaul Haq seizes power;
— April 4, 1979: Bhutto is hanged after the Supreme Court upholds death sentence on charges of conspiracy to murder and Gen. Zia rejects a mercy petition; Bhutto's daughter, Benazir Bhutto, takes up her father's legacy;
— Aug. 17, 1988: Gen. Zia dies in a mysterious plane crash;
— Nov. 16, 1988: Benazir Bhutto becomes Pakistan's first woman prime minister;
— Aug. 6, 1990: Benazir Bhutto's government is dismissed amid charges of corruption and mismanagement;
— Oct. 24, 1990: Parliamentary elections are held and Nawaz Sharif becomes prime minister;
— April 19, 1993: President Ghulam Ishaq Khan dismisses Sharif government on corruption charges but the Supreme Court reinstates Sharif; Sharif and Khan fail to reconcile and end conflict so the then-army chief Gen. Waheed Kakar forces both to resign;
— Oct. 6, 1993: Bhutto is voted back into power after mass demonstrations lead to the early dismissal of her 1990 successor, Sharif;
— Nov. 5, 1996: Bhutto's government is again dismissed amid renewed charges of corruption and incompetence raised by her party's leader, Farooq Leghari;
— Feb. 3, 1997: Elections bring Sharif back to power; Bhutto goes into self-exile to avoid prosecution on corruption allegations;
— Oct. 12, 1999: Army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf ousts Sharif's government in a bloodless coup after Sharif fails in his attempt to sack the army chief. Sharif is sent into exile after a court convicts him of conspiracy against Musharraf;
— Oct. 10, 2002: Elections are held under Musharraf and pro-Musharraf parties form government; Zafarullah Jamali becomes prime minister on Nov. 21, 2002;
— Aug. 23, 2004: Shaukat Aziz became 23rd prime minister after Jamali resigns over differences with Musharraf;
— Oct. 5, 2007: Musharraf issues a controversial national reconciliation law after striking a deal with Bhutto that paves way for elections later in the year and the return home of both Bhutto and Sharif;
— Nov. 3, 2007: Musharraf imposes state of emergency, sacks top judiciary officials to pre-empt a court verdict against his presidency;
— Dec. 27, 2007: Bhutto is assassinated in a gun-and-bomb attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi;
— Feb. 18, 2008: Elections are held and Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party emerges as winner; Yousuf Raza Gilani becomes prime minister.
— Aug. 18 2008: Musharraf resigns from his post as president under pressure;
— Sept. 6, 2008: Bhutto's husband Asif Ali Zardari becomes president;
— May 2, 2011: Osama bin Laden is killed in a U.S. Navy SEALs raid in the army garrison town of Abbottabad;
— June 19, 2012: Supreme Court disqualifies Gilani as prime minister for not complying with a court order to request a Swiss court reopen corruption cases against Zardari;
— June 22, 2012: Raja Pervez Ashraf becomes prime minister, completes his term on March 16, 2013;
— May 11, 2013: Sharif's party, the Pakistan Muslim League, overwhelmingly wins in general elections, he becomes prime minister for third time;
— July 28, 2017: Sharif is disqualified from office by the Supreme Court on corruption charges stemming from so-called leaked Panama papers;
— Aug. 1, 2017 Sharif's confidant Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is sworn in as prime minister;
— May 31: Abbasi's government completes its term in office and elections are scheduled for July 25;
— July 6: Anti-graft tribunal convicts Sharif in absentia and sentences him to 10 years in prison, his daughter and son in-law are sentenced to lesser term;
— July 13: Sharif returns home from London where his ailing wife is in hospital; he and his daughter are arrested after landing and taken to a jail in Rawalpindi.
Major events in Pakistan's 70-year political history
Major events in Pakistan's 70-year political history
Uganda’s presidential election experiences hours of delays at some polling stations
- Some polling stations remained closed for up to four hours after the scheduled 7 a.m. start time due to “technical challenges“
- The East African country of roughly 45 million people has 21.6 million registered voters
KAMPALA, Uganda: Uganda’s presidential election was plagued by widespread delays Thursday in addition to a days-long Internet shutdown that has been criticized as an anti-democratic tactic in a country where the president has held office since 1986.
Some polling stations remained closed for up to four hours after the scheduled 7 a.m. start time due to “technical challenges,” according to the nation’s electoral commission, which asked polling officers to use paper registration records to ensure the difficulties did not “disenfranchise any voter.”
President Yoweri Museveni, 81, faces seven other candidates, including Robert Kyagulanyi, a musician-turned-politician best known as Bobi Wine, who is calling for political change.
The East African country of roughly 45 million people has 21.6 million registered voters. Polls are expected to close at 4 p.m. Thursday, according to the electoral commission. Results are constitutionally required to be announced in 48 hours.
Impatient crowds gathered outside polling stations expressing concerns over the delays Thursday morning. Umaru Mutyaba, a polling agent for a parliamentary candidate, said it was “frustrating” to be waiting outside a station in the capital Kampala.
“We can’t be standing here waiting to vote as if we have nothing else to do,” he said.
Wine alleged there was electoral fraud occurring, noting that biometric voter identification machines were not working at polling places and claiming there was “ballot stuffing.”
“Our leaders, including Deputy President for Western Region, arrested. Many of our polling agents and supervisors abducted, and others chased off polling stations,” Wine wrote in a post on social media platform X.
Museveni told journalists he was notfied biometric machines were inoperable at some stations and he supported the electoral body’s decision to revert to paper registration records. He did not comment on the allegation of fraud.
Ssemujju Nganda, a prominent opposition figure and lawmaker seeking reelection in Kira municipality, told The Associated Press he had been waiting in line to vote for three hours.
Nganda also noted biometric machines were malfunctioning, in addition to the late arrival of balloting materials, and predicted the delays likely would lead to apathy and low turnout in urban areas where the opposition has substantial support.
“It’s going to be chaos,” he said Thursday morning.
Nicholas Sengoba, an independent analyst and newspaper columnist, said delays to the start of voting in urban, opposition areas favored the ruling party.
Museveni serving Africa’s third-longest presidential term
Uganda has not witnessed a peaceful transfer of presidential power since independence from British colonial rule six decades ago.
Museveni has served the third-longest term of any African leader and is seeking to extend his rule into a fifth decade. Some critics say removing him through elections remains difficult, but the aging president’s authority has become increasingly dependent on the military led by his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba.
Museveni and Wine are reprising their rivalry from the previous election in 2021, when Wine appealed to mostly young people in urban areas. With voter turnout of 59 percent, Wine secured 35 percent of the ballots against Museveni’s 58 percent, the president’s smallest vote share since his first electoral campaign three decades ago.
The lead-up to Thursday’s election produced concerns about transparency, the possibility of hereditary rule, military interference and opposition strategies to prevent vote tampering at polling stations.
Uganda’s Internet was shut down Tuesday by the government communications agency, which cited misinformation, electoral fraud and incitement of violence. The shutdown has affected the public and disrupted critical sectors such as banking.
Heavy security deployed
There has been heavy security leading up to voting, including military units deployed on the streets this week.
Amnesty International said security forces are engaging in a “brutal campaign of repression,” citing a Nov. 28 opposition rally in eastern Uganda where the military blocked exits and opened fire on supporters, killing one person.
Museveni urged voters to come out in large numbers during his final rally Tuesday.
“You go and vote, anybody who tries to interfere with your freedom will be crushed. I am telling you this. We are ready to put an end to this indiscipline,” he said.
The national electoral commission chairperson, Simon Byabakama, urged tolerance among Ugandans as they vote.
“Let us keep the peace that we have,” Byabakama said late Wednesday. “Let us be civil. Let us be courteous. Let’s be tolerant. Even if you know that this person does not support (your) candidate, please give him or her room or opportunity to go and exercise his or her constitutional right.”
Authorities also suspended the activities of several civic groups during the campaign season. That Group, a prominent media watchdog, closed its office Wednesday after the interior ministry alleged in a letter that the group was involved in activities “prejudicial to the security and laws of Uganda.”
Veteran opposition figure Kizza Besigye, a four-time presidential candidate, remains in prison after he was charged with treason in February 2025.
