Pakistani cricketer turned politician Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice), speaks to supporters during a campaign rally ahead of the general election in Karachi on July 22, 2018.

Vote counting in an election marred by allegations of fraud and militant violence has been tediously slow, yet from the outset cricket star Imran Khan and his party have maintained a commanding lead.

Election officials said it will be Thursday evening before an official count confirms Pakistan’s next government. But before even half the votes were counted, Khan’s leading rival Shahbaz Sharif, who heads the Pakistan Muslim League — the party of jailed ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif — rejected the vote, generating fears that disgruntled losers could delay the formation of the next government.

The winner will face a crumbling economy and bloodshed by militants, who sent a suicide bomber to a crowding polling station in the southwestern city of Quetta to carry out a deadly attack that killed 31 people.

The parliamentary balloting marked only the second time in Pakistan’s 71-year history that one civilian government has handed power to another in the country of 200 million people. Yet there have been widespread concerns during the election campaign about manipulation by the military, which has directly or indirectly ruled Pakistan for most of its existence.

In a tweet on his official account, Pakistan’s military spokesman Gen. Asif Ghafoor called accusations of interference “malicious propaganda.”

The tweet, which featured a collage of pictures of Pakistanis handing military personnel at polling stations flowers and elderly women kissing soldiers, Ghafoor wrote that the “world has seen your love and respect for Pak Armed Forces & LEAs (law enforcement agencies) today. U hv rejected all kinds of malicious propaganda.”