WASHINGTON: The United States is ready to work with any government that comes to power in Pakistan following last week’s general elections in the country, State Department Spokesperson Mathew Miller said Monday.
“It was clearly a competitive election in which people were able to exercise their choice,” Miller said in response to questions at his daily press briefing.
Replying to questions, he said there is no new Pakistani government yet, and that that discussions were still taking place in that regard.
“But one of the things that we have said leading up to the elections, and we’ll continue to make clear, is that whoever the Pakistani people choose to represent them, we will work with that government,” Miller added.
Thursday’s elections left no clear winners. To form a government, a party must win 133 of the 265 contested seats in the National Assembly.
Questioned abut some alleged irregularities in the polls, Miller said the US wanted to see those “fully investigated.”
“Let me just reiterate that we do think that the claims of fraud need to be fully investigated,” he said.
“But ultimately, we respect the democratic process and we’re ready to work with the government once it’s formed.”
He also congratulated the Pakistani people – including election workers and observers, civil society members and journalists who protected the country’s democratic and electoral institutions – for participating in the elections.
“We did express concerns publicly – we also expressed those concerns privately and joined the EU, the UK and other countries in doing so – with some irregularities that we saw in the process. We’ve conveyed the need for the Pakistani government to respect the will of the elections,” Miller said.
“We emphasize repeatedly … that we want to see the rule of law, respect for the Constitution, free press and vibrant civil society respected in the run-up to the elections. We continue to believe that’s the case. We condemn political and election-related violence and restrictions on Internet and cell phone service. Those negatively impacted the electoral service,” he further said.
“The claims of interference and fraud that we have seen raised, we want to ensure (those) are fully investigated by Pakistan’s legal system and we will be continuing to monitor that in the days ahead,” he added. – APP