Tomorrow Elections in Pakistan
Presidential elections will be held tomorrow to elect the 14th President of Pakistan for next five years.
Asif Ali Zardari, the joint candidate of PPP and the PML-N, and Sunni Ittehad Council’s candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai are vying for the office of President.
The President is elected by an electoral college comprising members of the Senate, National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies.
Voting is held through a secret ballot.
A joint session of the parliament will be held at the parliament house in Islamabad tomorrow in which the members of National Assembly and the Senate will exercise their right to vote.
Similarly, the provincial assemblies will hold their sessions tomorrow for the election.
Polling will begin at 10:00 am and continue till 4:00 pm.
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.
The upcoming presidential election in Pakistan is poised to see former president Asif Ali Zardari stepping into the role, succeeding the incumbent Dr. Arif Alvi, whose five-year term concluded last year. Despite the term’s end, Dr. Alvi has remained in office as the formation of the new electoral college is pending. Zardari, a former businessman turned politician and the widower of the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is the co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and at 68 years old, he is set to become the 14th president of the country.
Zardari’s candidacy is bolstered by the support of the coalition government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), marking the culmination of a quid pro quo agreement following the February 8 polls, which resulted in a fragmented mandate. In exchange for backing PML-N’s candidate for the prime ministerial post, PPP secured governance in the Punjab provincial assembly, while Zardari garnered PML-N’s support for the presidency, granting his party control over the Sindh province. Zardari, having previously served as president from 2008 to 2013, will be the first civilian to be elected for a second term.
Challenging Zardari’s bid for the presidency is Mahmood Khan Achakzai, the leader of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), who is contesting under the banner of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC). This move follows the alignment of independent candidates, backed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), with the SIC.
Confident in their majority, the ruling coalition expects Zardari’s victory, holding sway in the Senate, National Assembly, Punjab Assembly, Sindh Assembly, and Balochistan Assembly. Conversely, the opposition wields influence solely in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly.
In adherence to Pakistan’s Constitution, the president is indirectly elected by an electoral college comprising federal and provincial lawmakers. Polling will take place in the parliament buildings and provincial assembly buildings, with voting scheduled from 10 am to 4 pm, as per the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Reflecting on Pakistan’s political history, Iskandar Mirza became the country’s first president on March 23, 1956, following the adoption of the first Constitution and the establishment of the republic. Prior to this, the nation was governed by the governor generals under the amended India Act of 1935.
As Dr. Arif Alvi steps aside to make way for the new president, his tenure, which officially expired after his election in September 2018, continued in a caretaker capacity due to the dissolution of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies in August 2023, ahead of the February 8 general elections.
With less than 24 hours remaining until the presidential elections, Achakzai, supported by Khan and PTI, has called for a postponement, citing an incomplete electoral college. Achakzai emphasized the vacancy of reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies, arguing that proceeding with the election would infringe upon the rights enshrined in the Constitution.