ISLAMABAD, Saturday (AFP) - Asif Ali Zardari secured a large win in Pakistan's presidential elections today, capping a remarkable rise from jail, exile and his wife Benazir Bhutto's assassination just nine months ago.
The controversial front-runner swept a poll among lawmakers to become the 14th president in Pakistan's short but turbulent history, taking power in the world's only nuclear-armed Islamic state and frontline "war on terror" ally.
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| A Zardari poster outside the parliament building in Islamabad. Reuters |
"It is an historic win. It is a victory for democracy," said Sherry Rehman, the country's information minister and a close aide of Bhutto.
"This man suffered jail for more than 11 years for the sake of democracy and today he is elected as the president of the country and it is a sign of the strengthening of democracy."
Zardari secured 281 out of 426 parliamentary votes and won a thumping majority in three of the four provincial assemblies forming the presidential electoral college, officials said.
The 53-year-old defeated retired chief justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui, who was backed by former premier Nawaz Sharif, and Mushahid Hussain, a close aide of Musharraf.
He had been the clear favourite in a three-way race to take power after Pervez Musharraf's nearly nine-year rule marked by Islamic militancy and economic turmoil.
Security was tight as secret voting began shortly after 10:00 am (0400 GMT) and ended at 3:00 pm in the two chambers of parliament and four provincial assemblies.
Rampant militancy was underscored in the northwestern city of Peshawar, where voting was taking place, as a suicide car-bomber rammed a police checkpost killing 16 people and wounding more than 80.
As co-chairman of the PPP, Zardari already heads a fragile coalition government which, although still in office, recently lost the backing of Sharif's party.
He now gains wide powers including the right to dismiss governments and appoint leaders of the military, which has ruled Pakistan for half of its 61-year existence.
Zardari, once dubbed "Mr. Ten Percent," has spent a total of 11 years in jail on charges ranging from corruption to murder. An amnesty signed by Musharraf cleared him of all corruption charges last year.
Musharraf's August 18 resignation in the face of impeachment charges triggered the election. Zardari will now face a series of challenges as president.
Pakistan jolted by quake as vote begins
ISLAMABAD, Saturday, (AFP) - A 5.6-magnitude earthquake jolted parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan today, forcing lawmakers in Pakistan to flee a building where they were voting in the presidential election, officials and witnesses said.
The quake, which hit at 10:17 am (0547 GMT), struck Afghanistan's Hindu Kush region near the border with Pakistan, the US Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
The epicentre was 66 kilometres (41 miles) south of Feyzabad, Afghanistan, and the tremor struck at a depth of 174 kilometres, said the USGS, which first measured the quake at 5.7 before revising it to 5.6.
Lawmakers who fled an assembly building in Pakistan's northern city of Peshawar while voting in the presidential election returned quickly after realising the tremor was moderate, witnesses said. |
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