Pakistan: Zardari elected new president
Islamabad, Pakistan - Pakistani lawmakers on Saturday elected Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairman of centre-left Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), as the country’s 14th president.
Zardari, 68, the widower of the two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the candidate of the ruling coalition, defeated Mahmood Khan Achakzai, a veteran politician from the southwestern Balochistan province, and a candidate of the opposition Sunni Ittehad Council, a religiopolitical group and new home to lawmakers belonging to jailed ex-prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) party.
The voting started at 10am local time (0500GMT) at the National Assembly building in Islamabad and all four provincial capitals and continued until 4pm (1100GMT).
Zardari is the only politician elected to the country’s highest, yet symbolic, constitutional office
for a second term.
He previously served as the president in 2008-2013 during the government of his own party.
In the Balochistan Assembly, Zardari secured a clean sweep, with all 47 members casting their votes in his favour. None voted
for Achakzai, while 15 members were absent from the assembly, Dawn reported earlier citing unofficial results.
In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Achakzai garnered 91 votes, surpassing Zardari, who received only 17 votes. Out of 118 members, 109 cast their ballots, with one vote being rejected.
In the Sindh Assembly, Zardari secured 58 votes, while Achakzai received three votes. The counting of votes took place under the Election Commission of Pakistan’s presiding officer, Nisar Durrani, according to Dawn.
Several parties, like Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulemae-islam (JUI) and Jamaat-e-islami boycotted the election. The current ruling coalition, comprising PML-N, PPP, and MQM-P, had thrown its support behind Zardari.
The president is chosen by an electoral college consisting of members from the Senate, the National Assembly, and the four provincial assemblies. The joint session of the parliament was conducted at the parliament house in Islamabad, where members from both the National Assembly and the Senate cast their votes, according to ARY News.
Simultaneously, provincial assemblies convened their sessions, after the election commission designated all four assemblies as polling stations for the smooth conduct of the electoral process.
The breakdown of voting members includes at least 162 from the provincial assembly in Sindh, 353 in Punjab, 65 in Balochistan, and 115 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, all contributing to the election of the new president.
Asif Ali Zardari, 68, is the widower of the two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the candidate of the ruling coalition