As the voters were waiting for their turn at the polling stations in Pakistan when a bomb blast took place killing them.
The blast killed at least 24 of them.
A hospital spokesman in the city of Quetta, where the blast took place, said 24 bodies and 35 injured people were taken to local hospitals. A leading news agency’s witness in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, said the blast occurred near a voting center.
The responsibility of the blast was taken up by the Islamic State, as revealed by the group’s Amaq news agency. The group said the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber but did not provide further detail or evidence for its claim.
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Earlier this month, a suicide bomber killed 149 people at an election rally in the town of Mastung, also in Baluchistan province. The attack was claimed by ISIS.
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.
According to the latest opinion polls, neither Khan nor Sharif are likely to win a clear majority in the election.
About 106 million people are registered to vote in polls due to close at 6 p.m (1300 GMT). Results will start trickling in within hours, and the likely winner should be known by around 2 a.m. on Thursday.
Whichever party wins, it will face a mounting and urgent in-tray, from a brewing economic crisis to worsening relations with on-off ally the United States to deepening cross-country water shortages.
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