Wikipedia

2018 Pakistani presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Pakistan on 4 September 2018.[2] The elections saw Arif Alvi of PTI being elected as the 13th president of Pakistan after defeating Fazal-ur-Rehman of MMA and Aitzaz Ahsan of PPP. Although incumbent president Mamnoon Hussain, whose term was to expire on 9 September 2018, was eligible for re-election, he declined to take part.[3][4]

2018 Pakistani presidential election
← 2013 4 September 2018 2024 →
679 votes in the Electoral College[n 1]
Plurality needed to win
 
Candidate Arif Alvi Fazal-ur-Rehman Aitzaz Ahsan
Party PTI MMA PPP
Home state Sindh KPK Punjab
Electoral vote 352 184 124
States carried 3 + ICT 0 1
Percentage 53.33% 27.88% 18.79%
President before election

Mamnoon Hussain
PML(N)

Elected President

Arif Alvi
PTI

The PTI-led government coalition nominated a founding member of the party Arif Alvi, right after a week of the announcement of the official victory of PTI in the general elections. The PPP on the other hand took a solo flight in announcing the candidature of PPP stalwart, a law expert and a veteran politician Aitzaz Ashan without having done the consensus with the remaining opposition. Against PTI's Alvi and PPP's Ahsan, the PML-N-led Opposition came up with Fazal-ur-Rehman, the leader of Far-right Islamist MMA, as their joint candidate.[5]

The Elections witnessed a decisive victory for Arif Alvi who managed to get 352 votes from the Electoral College. Opposition's Fazal-ur-Rehman followed with 184 votes, while Aitzaz Ahsan got only 124 votes. Alvi managed to emerge victorious in Punjab, KPK, and Balochistan, as well as the Parliament. Meanwhile, Aitzaz Ahsan was triumphant in Sindh. Although having a higher vote count than Ahsan, Fazal-ur-Rehman wasn't able to win in the Parliament or any Provincial Assembly.[6]

President-elect Arif Alvi was sworn in as the 13th president of Pakistan on 9 September 2018.[7]

Schedule

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The Election Commission of Pakistan announced the initial election schedule on 16 August 2018. Polling was conducted on following five places on 4 September 2018:

  • Parliament House at Islamabad
  • Punjab Provincial Assembly at Lahore
  • Sindh Provincial Assembly at Karachi
  • KPK Provincial Assembly at Peshawar
  • Baluchistan Provincial Assembly at Quetta

Members of Senate and National Assembly cast their vote at Parliament House whereas members of Provincial Assemblies cast their vote at respective assemblies.

Electoral system

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The president of Pakistan is indirectly elected by the Electoral College of Pakistan – a joint sitting of the Senate, National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies.

The votes of the members of the Senate and National Assembly are counted as single votes. Meanwhile, the votes given by the provincial assembly legislators are adjusted so as to give each province an equal share in the election. This is so because, each provincial assembly has a varying number of members, depending upon population size. The largest province by population size, Punjab, has a total of 371 members in its assembly, whereas the smallest province of Balochistan has a mere 65 members in its legislature. Therefore, the provincial votes are weighted against the Balochistan assembly in the following manner:[1]

Provincial Assembly Members Weightage of each vote Total votes
Balochistan 65 1 65
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 124 0.524 65
Punjab 371 0.175 65
Sindh 168 0.387 65

Regarding timing, the constitution states that election to the office of President must be held no earlier than sixty days and no later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of the incumbent president. If assemblies are not present, the constitution allows the election of president to be delayed thirty days after the general election.[8]

The electoral process itself is done via a secret ballot due to the post of the president being constitutionally non-partisan. Therefore, unlike during the election of the Prime Minister, cross-party voting is not liable to be considered defection.[1]

Electoral College

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The Electoral College of Pakistan is formed by a joint sitting of the six leading political bodies in Pakistan:

The maximum strength of the electoral college is 706. However, considering the vacant seats, the electoral college for this presidential election stood at 679. A simple majority is required in a two-candidate contest to claim victory. But in a three-candidate race, the victory requirement goes down considerably depending on how the votes are split.[1]

The weighted votes of each political party in the six bodies constituting the electoral college are as follows:[1]

Body PTI PML-N PPP MQM MMA PML BAP GDA IND BNP(M) ANP BNP(A) AML HDP PKMAP TLP JWP NP
National Assembly[9] 151 81 54 7 15 3 5 3 4 4 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
Senate[10] 12 31 20 5 6 0 7 1 15 1 1 0 0 0 5 0 0 5
Punjab Assembly 30 28 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Sindh Assembly 12 0 38 8 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Balochistan Assembly 6 1 0 0 12 0 23 0 4 9 4 3 0 1 1 0 1 0
KPK Assembly 40 3 3 0 7 1 0 0 2 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total (weighted) 251 144 116 33 40 6 28 9 22 14 10 3 1 1 6 1 2 5

Candidates

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Confirmed

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Withdrawn

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Voting

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The voting started at around 10:00 am PST. Prime Minister Imran Khan came to the Parliament House and cast his vote with an hour left in the voting deadline. The voting ended at 04:00 pm PST.[15][16]

Results

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Results of the 2018 Pakistani presidential election[15][16]
Candidate Party Electoral college Total
votes 		% Total
weighted 		%
Parl P S B KP
Arif Alvi PTI 212 186 56 45 78 577 53.28 352 53.33
Fazal-ur-Rehman MMA 131 141 1 15 26 314 28.99 184 27.88
Aitzaz Ahsan PPP 81 6 100 0 5 192 17.83 124 18.79
Valid votes 424 333 157 60 109 1083 97.65 660 100
Invalid/blank votes 6 18 1 1 0 26 2.35 - -
Total 430 351 158 61 109 1109 100 - -
Abstention 16 20 10 4 15 65 5.54 - -
Registered voters/turnout 446 371 168 65 124 1174 94.46 - -

Notes

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  1. ^ The total size of the electoral college is 706. But considering the vacant seats, the electoral college for 2018 presidential election stood at 679.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Mehdi, Tahir (2 September 2018). "Analysis: PTI poised to take President House". Dawn. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  2. ^ "Presidential elections to be held on September 4". Dunya News. 16 August 2018.
  3. ^ "General polls 2018 would be held on July 25: sources". Dunya News. 22 May 2018.
  4. ^ Samaa Web Desk. "Govt to complete its term; elections to be held in July 2018: PM".
  5. ^ "Party-Wise Electoral College of Presidential Elections 2018". 14 February 2008.
  6. ^ "Presidential Election 2018: PTI's Arif Alvi elected 13th President of Pakistan". 14 February 2008.
  7. ^ "Arif Alvi elected 13th president of Pakistan | The Express Tribune". The Express Tribune. 4 September 2018. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
  8. ^ "Second Schedule: Election of President". Pakistani.org. Archived from the original on 8 July 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2018.
  9. ^ National Assembly of Pakistan
  10. ^ "Senate of Pakistan". Senate.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2013.
  11. ^ "PM Imran has nominated Arif Alvi for President of Pakistan: Chaudhry". Geo.tv. 18 August 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  12. ^ "PPP nominates Aitzaz Ahsan as its presidential candidate: sources | Pakistan". Geo.tv. 18 August 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  13. ^ "Opposition except PPP decide to field Maulana Fazl for president: sources: AtifChaudhry". Geo.tv. 18 August 2018. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  14. ^ Chaudhry, Fahad (30 August 2018). "PML-N's Muqam opts out of presidential race as deadline to withdraw nomination papers ends".
  15. ^ a b "PTI's Dr Arif Alvi elected 13th President of Pakistan". Dawn. 4 September 2018.
  16. ^ a b Chaudhry, Fahad (5 September 2018). "PTI's Arif Alvi officially declared winner of 13th presidential election". Dawn.
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