Pakistan's presidential election: Voting begins, Asif Ali Zardari set to win
Pakistan in which Asif Ali Zardari is set to be elected for a second time. Asif Ali Zardari, the 68-year-old joint candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Sunni Ittehad Council's candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai, 75, are vying for the office of president.
The voting began at 10 am and will continue till 4 pm.
The new president 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.
According to the Constitution, the president is indirectly elected by an electoral college comprising federal and provincial lawmakers.
Achakzai is the head of his Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and is 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. Zardari, a businessman-turned-politician is the husband of slain Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is supported by the coalition government led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) which has the necessary numbers.
This is part of a quid pro quo deal after the February 8 polls delivered a fractured mandate: PPP supported PML-N's candidate for prime minister's post and also got to form the government in the Punjab provincial assembly
