Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Thursday inched towards becoming the single largest party in the country's general elections by leading on 120 seats in an early count of votes even as rival political parties alleged rigging. 

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While final results are expected in the coming hours, initial outcomes show that the PTI would emerge as the single largest party in the National Assembly. In several cities, PTI supporters rejoiced by waving flags and raising party slogans as results trickled in after the voting on Wednesday.

The 65-year-old former cricketer's PTI was ahead in 120 of 272 contested National Assembly constituencies, while its main rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was way behind with 61 seats. The Pakistan People's Party was leading on 40 seats.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) officially announced the first result at 4.00am.

Pakistan's National Assembly comprises a total of 342 members, of which 272 are directly elected whereas the rest - 60 seats reserved for women and 10 for religious minorities - are selected later through proportional representation among parties with more than 5% of the vote.

A party can only form the government if it manages to clinch 172 seats in total. A single party will need at least 137 of the directly elected seats to be able to form the government on its own.

The PML-N and the PPP, both raised questions on the transparency of the vote counting process, alleging their polling agents were not allowed to verify vote counts as is mandated by law.

Provincial Assemblies

Elections were also held yesterday for four provincial assemblies - Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. 

The provincial results show that the PML-N was leading on 129 seats in Punjab followed by PTI with 121 in the provincial assembly of 299 members.

The PPP was leading on 73 seats in Sindh. The PTI was leading on 60 seats in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Balochistan Awami Party was ahead of others in Balochistan.