Presidential Election 2018: PTI's Arif Alvi elected 13th President of Pakistan
The polling process was held through secret ballot.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Lawmakers on Tuesday elected Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Dr Arif Alvi as the 13th President of Pakistan after the vote count ended at around 5pm.
According to unofficial results, Alvi managed to get 212 votes in parliament, 186 in the Punjab Assembly, 56 votes in Sindh, 78 in KP and 45 votes in the Balochistan Assembly.
National Assembly and Senate
Alvi received 212 votes in the combined National Assembly and Senate. His rivals Fazlur Rehman and Aitzaz Ahsan bagged 131 and 81 votes respectively. A total of 424 votes were cast. Six votes were rejected.
The PTI leader received 353 electoral votes while Aitzaz Ahsan got 124 electoral votes. Fazlur Rehmana managed to bag 185 electoral votes.
Punjab Assembly
As many as 351 members exercised their right to vote in the 354-member Punjab Assembly and 18 votes were cancelled. Alvi received the highest number of votes at 186 (thirty three electoral votes). Fazlur Rehman came in second with 141 (25 electoral) votes whereas Aitzaz Ahsan managed to get six (one electoral) votes.
Lahore High Court Chief Justice Yawar Ali presided over the polling process while Punjab Election Commissioner Zafar Iqbal Hussain performed duties as returning officer.
PTI Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan was the first to cast his vote in the Punjab Assembly.
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Sindh Assembly
As many as 158 members of the Sindh Assembly cast their vote in the presidential election while five lawmakers abstained. Aitzaz Ahsan received 100 votes and Arif Alvi 56 votes whereas Fazl managed to get one vote. One vote was dismissed in the election.
According to the electoral system, Aitzaz received 39 votes and Alvi 22 votes. Sindh High Court Chief Justice Ahmed Ali Shaikh performed the duty of presiding officer.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly
In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, 111 out of 112 lawmakers exercised their voting right. Arif Alvi received 78 votes, Fazlur Rehman 26 votes and Aitzaz Ahsan received five votes. Two votes of lawmakers were dismissed.
According to the electoral formula, Arif Alvi votes tally to 41 votes and 13 votes for Fazlur Rehman. Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth supervised the polling process.
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Balochistan Assembly
Alvi bagged 45 votes in the provincial assembly where 60 out of 61 members took part in the voting process. Fazlur Rehman received 15 votes while Aitzaz received none.
Balochistan High Court Chief Justice Syeda Tahira Safdar acted as presiding officer.
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Prime Minister Imran Khan casts his vote. --- Dunya News screengrab
The election was a three-way fight between the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Arif Alvi, Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Aitzaz Ahsan and joint Opposition candidate Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
PPP candidate Aitzaz Ahsan talks to media outside parliament. --- AP
The tenure of outgoing President Mamnoon Hussain will end on September 8 and he had declined for a re-election.
Polling stations were set up in the Parliament House and the four provincial assemblies where the NA, Senate members and MPAs took part in the voting process. Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Raza Khan served as the Returning Officer.
Speaker NA Asad Qaiser casts his vote. --- APP
The ECP barred the members from carrying mobile phones with them at the time of voting. Moreover, personnel of Rangers and FC were deployed around the Parliament House and the buildings of the provincial assemblies. The polling begun at 10am and continued till 4pm.
Read More: Party-Wise Electoral College Of Presidential Elections 2018 - Who Will Be The Winner?
Opposition splits apart
The joint Opposition was to field a single candidate, however, several attempts to achieve the required goal ended in vain.
The PPP last month had nominated Aitzaz Ahsan as a candidate, while other opposition parties including PML-N and MMA opposed the move and as the differences persisted, they nominated Rehman.
Lawmakers arrive to cast their votes for presidential election at Parliament. --- AP
Despite several requests, none of them agreed to withdraw their candidate in favour of the other which further widened the cracks in the alliance of opposition parties.
Read Also: Willing to withdraw name if Shehbaz agrees, Fazl tells Zardari
On the other hand, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry had claimed that PTI would not face any difficulty in getting its candidate, Dr Arif Alvi, elected as Pakistan’s next president as it had garnered the required support.
“The PTI enjoys support of all of its allied parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) besides other smaller allies,” he said. BNP’s Sardar Akhtar Mengal has also ensured that his party will support Arif Alvi in Presidential Election.
ECP CEC to submit results on Wednesday
Talking to media, ECP Additional Director General Nadeem Qasim said that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) will submit the results to federal government on Wednesday.
He said that according to the law, the federal government will announce the final results.
How is Pakistan’s President elected
Pakistan’s President is elected indirectly through an electoral college, comprising the Senate, National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies – Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Every member of the National Assembly has one vote while the four provincial assemblies are assigned an equal weight with the smallest, the Balochistan Assembly, serving as the base.
The Balochistan Assembly has 65 members, while the strength of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly is 124. Thus, the vote of a member of the KP assembly has half the value of the vote of a member of the Balochistan Assembly. In other words, each provincial assembly has a maximum of 65 votes in the college and after adding the National Assembly (342) and Senate (104) members, the total size of the electoral college comes out to 706.
However, 27 seats in all the Houses are vacant and elections are scheduled after the presidential polls. Thus, the electoral college for presidential elections currently stands at 679 and a majority in a two-candidate race requires 341 votes.
