Pakistani lawmakers elected Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the center-left Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), as the country’s 14th president.
Zardari, 68, defeated Mahmud Khan Achakzai, a veteran politician from the southwestern province of Balochistan and the candidate of the opposition Sunni Ittehad Council, which is the new seat of MPs for the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
Some small political parties boycotted the elections and no MP from these parties cast their vote.
Voting in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies lasted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time.
Zardari is the 68-year-old widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and he was the president of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013.
He was the first democratically elected president to complete his term in the 75-year history of the South Asian Muslim country.
According to the Constitution, Pakistan is a republic and an Islamic state with a semi-presidential system of government. The president of the republic is elected for a five-year term by the federal parliament and provincial assemblies. The candidate must be Muslim and over 45 years of age, Beta news agency writes.
Photo: X (former Twitter)
