Pakistan election results 2018: What time will the results come in? When is the exit poll?

Voters are taking to the polls for the first time since 2013 today in a huge election with the two frontrunners thought to be neck and neck.

More than 30 political parties and 12,570 candidates are in the running for the elections.

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is looking like the favourites to unseat the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-M).

The Pakistan’s Peoples Party (PPP), which is led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, is also expected to gain seats across the country.

The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), all alliance of right-wind religious parties, should also pick up seats.

What time will the results come in?

Voters took to the polls at 8am PKT (4am BST) today and will be open for eight hours until 6pm PKT (2pm BST).

Votes will then be counted on the spot, with results being reached in the next 24 hours.

An exact time for the announcement of the results is not yet known although a likely indicator is expected at 2am local time (10pm BST).

However, the voting commission in Pakistan will release the results by constituency, as well as projections and votes polled for the candidates on each seat.

The election results will also come in live on the official Pakistan election website: www.ecp.gov.pk.

A poll carried out earlier this month on 3,752 people showed Khan’s PTI were ahead by four percentage points.

The latest opinion polls have hinted at a possible coalition with the PPP, as neither Khan nor Sharif seem like to win with a clear majority.

What has happened during the General Election so far?

About 371,000 soldiers have been stationed at polling stations across the country to prevent attacks, nearly five times the number deployed at the last election in 2013.

At least 25 people have been killed and 40 injured in a van blast while people were voting in Quetta.

Korangi police officials are also interrogating seven polling agents for bringing downloaded copies of forms 40 and 45 from the ECP website with them, as the forms were supposed to be provide by polling agents.

Imran Khan gave a televised speech after voting, which is banned by electoral laws.

Women at a poll station in Lahore claimed the army wasn’t allowing them to enter.