Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, the joint candidate of the ruling alliance, was elected as the country’s president for the second time after he defeated PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) nominee Mahmood Khan Achakzai with a huge margin.
Zardari Saturday secured 411 electoral votes in parliament and all four provincial assemblies with the backing of allied parties — mainly Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
Ackakzai bagged 181 votes as he was only able to secure the majority of votes in the PTI-backed SIC-dominated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
To ensure democratic traditions, Zardari also met his rival candidate Achakzai in the House.
As many as 381 lawmakers out of 398 cast ballots in both houses of parliament, while 17 lawmakers belonging to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamat-e-Islami (JI), PTI, and Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) did not cast vote in the presidential election due to different reasons.
The JUI-F,JI and GDA had announced a boycott of the presidential elections, while PTI senators — Shibli Faraz, Ijaz Chaudhry and Azam Swati — also did not participate in the voting.
Likewise, in the three provincial assemblies — Sindh, Balochistan, and KP — Zardari obtained a majority of votes while Ackakzai was only able to win the majority vote in the KP Assembly.
