Asif Ali Zardari elected as the 14th President of Pakistan with overwhelming majority

Asif Ali Zardari was elected as the 14th president of Pakistan with an overwhelming majority on Saturday. 

He secured 716 votes from the Senate of Pakistan, the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.

Meanwhile, his opponent SIC-backed Mahmood Khan Achakzai managed to get just 119 votes.

Zardari has previously served as the 11th president of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013 and was the first politician to complete a full term in office.

Born on July 26, 1955, in Karachi, Zardari has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018.

Following the election, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday evening announced that PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari received 411 votes in the presidential election against his opponent PkMAP Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who managed to get only 181 votes.

The electoral watchdog in a statement issued on behalf of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, said presidential polls were carried out in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar and Islamabad.

ECP added that the results prepared by the presiding officers from all five locations were received at the ECP secretariat.

“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.”

The election commission highlighted that 1,044 votes were cast of which nine were declared invalid.

“Thus, the total number of valid votes cast is 1,035.”

ECP concluded that the official Result of Count on Form-VII shall be prepared and forwarded to the federal government tomorrow after receipt of the original record from the presiding officers.