ISLAMABAD: Asif Ali Zardari was on Saturday elected as the president of Pakistan for the second time.
In the presidential election, the candidate of the PPP and allied parties bagged 255 votes from parliament against Achakzai who got 119 votes. Overall, Zardari bagged 411 votes from National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies while Achakzai could score only 180.34 votes.
“The total number of seats in the electoral college was 1,185 out of which 92 were vacant. The remaining 1,093 voters were to exercise their right to vote,” the election commission said in a statement. It said 1,044 votes were cast of which nine were declared invalid. Thus, the total number of valid votes cast is 1,035.
In the Punjab Assembly, Zardari got 246 and Achakzai 100 votes. In Balochistan, all the 47 members of the assembly voted for Zardari and none for Sunni Ittehad Council’s Mehmood Khan Achakzai.
Zardari bagged 151 votes in the Sindh Assembly while nine votes were cast in favor of Achakzai.
However, Achakzai got 91 votes in the Khyber Pakthunkhwa Assembly where Zardari managed to get 17 votes. A total of 109 votes were cast in the house.
It may be noted that Zardari remained president of the country from 2008 to 2013.