Asif Ali Zardari poised to win presidential polls by comfortable margin

• Zardari to contest against SIC's Mahmood Khan Achakzai.
• PPP-P chief likely to get more or less 202 votes from NA.
• Senate, NA members to exercise right to vote by secret ballot.

ISLAMABAD: As the presidential elections are scheduled to be held on Saturday (March 9), the ruling coalition has calculated that its candidate Asif Ali Zardari would get more than 400 electoral votes.

The ruling alliance has pitched former president and Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) chief Zardari against Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) head Mahmood Khan Achakzai, who is backed by Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), for the president's slot. 

The members of the Senate and National Assembly would exercise their right to vote by secret ballot in the Parliament House while polling for the presidential elections would also be held in the four provincial assemblies.

As many as 325 members of the National Assembly, 91 senators, 354 members of the Punjab Assembly, 157 members of the Sindh Assembly, 117 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 65 members of the Balochistan Assembly would cast their vote.

The ruling coalition parties, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), National Party (NP), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have declared their support for Zardari while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed SIC and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen have assured their support to Achakzai. 

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Akhtar Mengal of Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) have announced they will abstain from voting in the presidential elections.

Parliamentary sources have reviewed the party position in the National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies, and how many votes each presidential candidate is likely to get.

Zardari is likely to get more or less 202 votes from the National Assembly — the number secured by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his election — PML-N’s 108 votes, PPP’s 67 votes, MQM-P's 22, PML-Q’s five, IPP’s four, and one vote of NP. 

Achakzai is expected to get 92 votes from the SIC and independent candidates, and one vote each from the PkMAP and Majlis Wahdat al-Muslimeen, making it 94 votes.

If the political developments so far are taken into consideration, JUI-F’s 11 votes and one vote each of PML-Zia and BNP-M in the National Assembly would not be used in favour of any candidate. 

According to initial calculations, from the Senate, Zardari is likely to get 21 votes from PML-N, 18 from PPP, nine from BAP, two from NP, two from Awami National Party (ANP), three from MQM-P, and five votes from independent senators, making it 54 votes from the Upper House of Parliament.

Achakzai is likely to get a total of 26 votes in the Senate including 25 votes from the PTI and one from PKMAP. JUI-F’s four votes and JI's one vote would not be cast.

From the Punjab Assembly, Zardari is likely to get 43 electoral votes while Achakzai may bag 19.

From the Sindh Assembly, Zardari is expected to get around 60 votes, while Achakzai may get three.

From the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, the ruling alliance’s candidate is expected to get six votes and the SIC candidate may get 43, while the JUI-F may not cast its vote.

From the Balochistan Assembly, Zardari is expected to get 48 electoral votes and Achakzai's score is likely to be two votes, while 15 electoral votes of the JUI-F may not be cast. 

Voting procedure 

According to the procedure of voting in the presidential election, each senator, MNA and MPA is given one ballot paper to cast their vote on which the names of the candidates are listed alphabetically. The presidential election is held by secret balloting.

After that, each ballot paper is signed by the presiding officer, and the result of the presidential election is announced by the chief election commissioner.

The president-elect takes the oath of office from the chief justice of Pakistan for the next five years.

Maryam calls MPAs for lunch

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has invited PML-N and coalition parties’ MPAs to a lunch today (Friday).

After the Friday prayer, there will be a meeting of the parliamentary party in which the members of the assembly will be briefed regarding the presidential election. According to sources, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is also likely to attend a luncheon meeting hosted by Maryam.

Originally published in The News