ISLAMABAD: The ruling alliance has projected that its nominee Asif Ali Zardari will receive more than 400 electoral votes in the presidential elections, which are slated for Saturday (March 9).
The ruling alliance has pitted former president and Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) chief Zardari against Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai, who is supported by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), for the presidency.
Members of the Senate and National Assembly would vote by secret ballot in Parliament House, while presidential elections would be place in the four provincial assemblies.
A total of 325 National Assembly members, 91 senators, 354 Punjab Assembly members, 157 Sindh Assembly members, 117 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly members, and 65 Balochistan Assembly members will 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 the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed SIC and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen have pledged their support for Achakzai.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), and Akhtar Mengal of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) have all indicated that they will not vote in the presidential election.
Parliamentary sources have analyzed the party positions in the National Assembly, Senate, and four provincial assemblies, as well as the number of votes each presidential candidate is expected to get.
Zardari is expected to receive approximately 202 votes from the National Assembly, which is the same amount as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received in his election, with the PML-N receiving 108 votes, the PPP receiving 67 votes, the MQM-P receiving 22, the PML-Q receiving five, the IPP receiving four, and the NP receiving one.
Achakzai is predicted to receive 92 votes from the SIC and independent candidates, plus one vote each from the PkMAP and Majlis Wahdat al-Muslimeen, for a total of 94 votes.
If the political developments so far are taken into consideration, JUI-F’s 11 votes and one vote each by PML-Zia and BNP-M in the National Assembly would not be used in favour of any candidate.
