Malala Yousafzai on Pakistan elections: ‘I believe today, as I always have…’

Pakistan Elections 2024: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said that her country Pakistan needs “free and fair elections” as she urged elected officials to accept the voters’ decision. The 26-year-old, who became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in 2014, said, “Pakistan needs free and fair elections, which includes transparency in counting votes and respect for the results. I believe today, as I always have, that we must accept the voters’ decision with grace.”
She posted on X (formerly Twitter), “I hope our elected officials, whether in government or opposition parties, will prioritise democracy and prosperity for the people of Pakistan.”
Malala Yousafzai was shot by a Taliban gunman who targeted her for her activism on women’s education in October 2012. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford in 2020.
Independents backed by Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan have won at least 100 seats while Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N took 73 and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got 54. Minor parties shared 27 seats between them.
Following the results, Nawaz Sharif said in a speech in Lahore, “We don’t have enough of a majority to run the government ourselves, therefore we invite the other parties and candidates who have been successful to work with us.”
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s army chief said that politicians must show “maturity and unity” to form a coalition together.
“Elections are not a zero-sum competition of winning and losing but an exercise to determine the mandate of the people,” army chief General Syed Asim Munir said, adding, “As the people of Pakistan have reposed their combined trust in the Constitution of Pakistan, it is now incumbent upon all political parties to reciprocate the same with political maturity and unity.”