PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was elected the president of Pakistan for the second time after winning the presidential election with 255 votes against PkMAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai who got 119 votes in Parliament on Saturday.

Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, the presiding officer for the presidential election in the NA, announced the result.

Live footage from Parliament showed lawmakers from multi-party alliance shaking hands with Zardari’s son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as supporters chanted slogans: Aik Zardari Sab Pey Bhari.

The election process for picking a new president is different from the election of the prime minister or many other constitutional positions.

While the prime minister, Senate chairman, and speakers of national and provincial assemblies are elected by a single legislature, the president is voted into power by six houses, eg, the Senate of Pakistan, National Assembly, and provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

Under a weightage formula laid out in the second schedule of the Constitution, votes in the provincial assemblies are divided by the total strength of the smallest provincial assembly, that is, Balochistan.

This means 371 votes of the Punjab Assembly will be divided by 65, the total seats in the Balochistan Assembly. It gives us a weightage score of 5.71 after rounding off. In other words, 5.71 votes polled in favour of a candidate in the Punjab Assembly mean a single vote.

Ballots cast in Senate and National Assembly are counted in the usual way, that is, one valid ballot paper cast in favour of a candidate means one vote.

Zardari received 461 votes from four provinces against Achakzai who got 200. Overall, the PPP co-chairman got 716 votes and his rival 319.

ECP declares Zardari as winner of presidential polls

The Election Commission of Pakistan has announced that PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari received 411 votes in the presidential election against his opponent PkMAP Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who got 181 votes.

Presidential polls were carried out in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Islamabad, according to a statement issued by the ECP.

“The total number of seats in the electoral college was 1,185 out of which 92 were vacant […],” the ECP said. “The remaining 1,093 voters were to exercise their right to vote.”

Nine out of the 1,044 votes were declared invalid, the ECP said, adding: “Thus, the total number of valid votes cast is 1,035.”

The official Result of Count on Form-VII would be prepared and forwarded to the federal government on Sunday after receipt of the original record from the presiding officers.

Provincial breakdown

Zardari got 246 votes while SIC’s Achakzai had 100 – out of the 352 votes cast by lawmakers – in the Punjab Assembly. The presiding officer rejected six votes in the voting process.

Achakzai did not get any vote in Balochistan Assembly and 47 votes were cast in favour of Zardari, according to updates by 4:25pm. BNP-A, JI, and Haq Do Tehreek did not participate in the voting.

The PPP co-chairman got 151 votes while his rival received nine votes in the Sindh Assembly. One vote was rejected in the assembly. But Achakzai did not get all the votes in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly where the SIC candidates are in power.

The PkMAP chief got 91 votes while Zardari got 17 votes out of the total 109. As many as nine members of JUI-F boycotted the election and one vote in the KP Assembly was rejected by the presiding officer.

In a post on Facebook, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that his father Asif Ali Zardari received 411 votes in the presidential election while Achakzai only got 181 votes.

The former foreign minister said Zardari received 255 votes from the National Assembly and Senate, 151 from the Sindh Assembly, 246 in Punjab, 17 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 47 in the Balochistan Assembly.

He also shared the breakdown of votes.

Presidential election was generally fair, says Achakzai

“The most unusual thing about this election was that the first time it has happened votes were neither bought nor sold,” he told reporters outside Parliament in Islamabad.

“There are some people in Pakistan who think that everything can be bought and sold in Pakistan,” he said, adding that there is a distinction growing between people who could be bought and those who cannot.

He thanked lawmakers who voted for him in the presidential election. He also thanked those who did not belong to Imran Khan’s party, the BNP-M chief and his two lawmakers.

He wondered what happened to National Party’s Abdul Malik Baloch who vowed to vote for the alliance. “Don’t know whether he slipped on a banana peel or what happened? We should have got one vote from there. We did not get any single vote from our province [Balochistan].”

Achakzai was the candidate of the Sunni Ittehad Council. He hails from Balochistan. He has been playing his role in the political democratic alliance which can be gauged from his active participation in MRD, APDM, Poonam, PDM, and other movements.

It is said that the veteran politician “never compromised” on the supremacy of the Constitution.

He quoted NP senators Tahir Bizenjo and Muhammad Akram, by their permission, that they deviated from their party’s line and voted to the other side of the aisle.

“This is good and a good precedent has been set. We will talk about other things in Parliament,” Achakzai said.

He reiterated that he had urged the Election Commission of Pakistan to delay the poll for five to seven days to try to ease the tense situation by developing a consensus.

The PkMAP chief said that the NA speaker did not understand his demand or else the presidential election could be held with consensus.

“I still say that and I request that this charged situation in Punjab and KP is not a good sign for the future. I will request Nawaz Sharif that he should tell the saner elements in his party that maybe he may not have good ties with some people and do not like their actions, but a large number of people in Pakistan have voted for that party,” he said.

In an apparent reference, the politician was speaking about former prime minister Imran Khan.

“We have to bear each other,” Achakzai said and added that politicians have to support each other. He went on to add that it could be done if parties don’t take their parliamentary issues to court.

The PkMAP chief reminded politicians that the legislative assembly had formed the Constitution. “The sooner the better,” he said, adding that except for Nawaz Sharif, politicians were small in front of the challenges faced by the country.

“Our small mistake can destroy the region,” he said and requested “for the sake of the country” to have discussions on Iran, Afghanistan, and resources related to Central Asia.

“This is the test of our wisdom,” he said and warned of getting involved in proxies due to the leaders’ “negative attitude”.

He shared that he went to congratulate Zardari, but he was not there. He sent his congratulatory message to senior leaders of PPP. “Now all of us test will begin.”

Felicitations

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Zardari on his election to the office of President for a second term.

In a statement, he said that the members of the National Assembly, Senate and the four provincial assemblies had reposed confidence in Zardari.

“President Asif Ali Zardari will be a symbol of strength of federation,” he said.

The prime minister also expressed the hope that Zardari as the president of Pakistan would perform his constitutional duties amicably as his election to the office was a continuation of the democratic norms.

Iranian Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam also congratulated Zardari on his election to the office of the President, Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

“I would like to express my sincere congratulations on the election of H.E. Asif Ali Zardari, as the 14th President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” the ambassador said in a statement.

According to the ambassador, Zardari reminded them the “glorious and golden days” of the relations between the two countries.

Background

Polling was held in the Senate of Pakistan, the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which were declared as polling stations.

A secret ballot from 10 am to 4 pm was held.

Zardari is the joint candidate of the coalition parties; while the Sunni Ittehad Council supports Mahmood Khan Achakzai.

The Election Commission of Pakistan on Friday rejected Mahmood Khan Achakzai’s request to postpone the election.

The chief election commissioner is the returning officer while the high court’s chief justices in Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar have been appointed the presiding officer in the assemblies. In Lahore, the ECP member-1 is the presiding officer.

Security is on high alert in the Red Zone and 600 police have been stationed in the area where unauthorized persons are not allowed.

Special pass holders were allowed inside the Parliament, according to the sources.

The newly elected president will take an oath at 4pm on Sunday. President Arif Alvi has met with the staff of the presidency. He will leave the post today as the farewell guard of honour was presented on Friday.