Pakistan election - LIVE: Major party accuses authorities of 'deliberately' stopping people from voting

Welcome to The Independent's live blog of the Pakistan election. You can follow all the latest updates throughout the day here.

Polls were scheduled to open at 8am local time (3.30am BST) across the country, and witnesses and national media say that voting is now underway across many polling stations.

Voters will decide today between the former cricket legend and playboy Imran Khan, and the party of ex-leader Nawaz Sharif, who has been jailed on corruption charges that he says are politically motivated.

Mr Khan's PTI party has positioned itself as an anti-corruption vehicle of change - but Mr Sharif's PML-N has accused him of being the military's candidate.

While PTI has held a narrow lead in polls leading up to the election, most forecasters are predicting a hung parliament that will require a coalition government.

It means that independents and other smaller parties - like the PPP led by the son of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto - could yet play a key role in coalition.

Today's vote will be the first time Pakistan has ever achieved a second democratic transition of power in a row. Throughout its history, the country has oscillated between military and civilian rule.

Yet while that should be being hailed as an unprecedented landmark of stability for the nation, there are warning signs to be found in a campaign that has been one of the most dangerous and distasteful in modern history.

From social media to the streets, the vicious nature of the campaign has polarised Pakistani society into supporters of Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) party, and the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) of Mr Sharif.

The chief election commissioner (CEC), retired Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza, on Tuesday assured voters that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was “trying its best to hold free, fair and unbiased elections”.

In a video message released by the election body, Mr Raza urged voters to fulfil their “duty towards the nation” by casting their votes calmly and responsibly on polling day.

There have been positive landmarks to be found aside from the flurry of recriminations in the campaign. For the first time in history, five trans candidates will be standing for election, and there are also a record 171 women in the running, though they make a small minority of the 12,500 candidates vying for national and provincial seats across the country.

Nonetheless, there will be a huge security presence trying to maintain order on the streets on Wednesday, with approximately 800,000 law enforcement and army personnel deployed.

Of more than 85,000 polling stations across the country, around 17,000 have been declared “highly sensitive” and will receive special security measures.

The majority of these – more than 11,000 – were in the populous Punjab and Sindh provinces, where the election is expected to be won or lost. Rights activists have also expressed concern that soldiers will be positioned inside booths where votes are cast.

For Ayesha Siddiqa, a defence analyst and author of a book about the power and financial holdings of Pakistan’s military, the outlook is worrying. She said: “Whatever way elections run, I see a lot of instability.”

Need to catch up? Read our full Pakistan election preview here: 

Today's divisive race is likely to come down to Punjab, the country's most populous province, where Sharif's party has clung to its lead in recent surveys.

"Let's test Imran as we have been testing others for the last several decades," said first-time voter Yousaf Ali, a 22-year-old medical student who cast his ballot for Khan's party in the city of Lahore in Punjab.

An anti-corruption crusader, Khan has promised an "Islamic welfare state" and cast his populist campaign as a battle to topple a predatory political elite hindering development in the impoverished mostly-Muslim nation of 208 million people, where the illiteracy rate hovers above 40 percent.

"We are pitched against mafias," Khan, 65, said in one of his last rallies in the coastal city of Karachi. "These are mafias who made money in this country and siphoned it abroad, burying this nation in debt".

Witnesses for The Independent report long lines at polling stations in some major cities, although it has been a quiet start to election day in the capital Islamabad itself, reports Mohammad Zubair Khan.

In Islamabad, it is expected that voters will turn out in larger numbers in the afternoon, local officials tell The Independent.

From Peshawar, which suffered at least one major terror attack during the election campaign, local journalist Akbar Amin says he saw lines stretching out from the polling station, including both women and male voters.

Increasing involvement in politics for women in Pakistan's conservative society has proved a challenge for the election authorities. At the last election in 2013, strict rules were introduced whereby any jurisdiction where women made up less than 10% of the voters would have its result discounted.

Men still dominate the world of politics here, however. Of the more than 12,500 candidates running for national and provincial assembly seats, just 171 are women, the election commission announced on Tuesday.

Other witnesses in Karachi and in Lahore told The Independent they had seen large numbers of voters reaching a number of different polling stations within the first hour of voting.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is optimistic about achieving a record turnout of voters. ECP secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad told a media briefing: "We expect to see a record turnout of voters due to the increased level of awareness about importance of vote."

The Nobel laureate and education-for-girls activist Malala Yousafzai has been among those urging people in Pakistan, especially women, to vote in the election.

In a tweet on Tuesday, she told Pakistanis to get up and exercise their right to vote. To the people of Pakistan - especially women - the power is in your hands, she said.

"Democracy shall win."

Pakistanis are sharing photos of their distinctive purple-inked thumbs to show they have cast their vote. 

They include the daughters of Benazir Bhutto, Asifa and Bakhtawar.

Pakistan Muslim League chief Shahbaz Sharif cast his vote in the eastern city of Lahore soon after polls opened in national elections. 

Sharif, the younger brother of disgraced ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, took over the ruling Pakistan Muslim League last year after his brother was found guilty of corruption. The ex-prime minister has since been sentenced to 10 years in jail, which he is serving while appealing the conviction. 

After voting he told reporters: "Do not waste your time. Get out of your homes and cast your vote. We will change the destiny of this country through the power of people. If we come into power, we will end poverty, give education to everyone, make millions of homes and build the Bhasha dam." He added: "China and Saudi Arabia are keen to help us." 

He said he believed today people will vote in support of Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam, who was also jailed, and "prove they support democracy".

The younger Sharif stood in line waiting his turn to enter the polling booth. In Pakistan, a candidate can run for elections in multiple seats. If the candidate wins more than one seat, a by-election will be held as a person can represent only one constituency. 

Sharif marked his ballot for both the National and Punjab provincial Parliaments and is contesting elections in four National Assembly seats and in two Punjab provincial legislature seats.