Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari was elected as Pakistan’s 14th President on Saturday, becoming the head of state for a second time.
Zardari, 68, was the joint candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) while his rival Mahmood Khan Achakzai, 75, was the candidate of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
He received 255 votes while his opponent got 119 votes in the National Assembly and the Senate.
The new president was elected by the electoral college of the newly elected members of the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies, as per the provisions of the Constitution.
In the Sindh Assembly, where Zardari’s PPP is at the helm, he bagged the most votes while he also swept the Balochistan Assembly votes bagging all votes polled there.
He also defeated Achakzai in the Punjab assembly.
In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, where SIC/PTI has the government, Achakzai got the most votes against Zardari.
A businessman-turned-politician, Zardari is the husband of slain Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Zardari would replace the incumbent Dr Arif Alvi, whose five-year term ended last year. However, he has continued since the new electoral college was not yet formed.
Zardari, who served as the president from 2008 to 2013, will also be the first civilian to be elected for the second time as president. He is expected to be sworn in on Sunday.
Achakzai is the head of his Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and was contesting from the platform of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which came to prominence after independent candidates backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) joined it.