Presidential Election Procedure: A Simple Guideline

Islamabad: After the general elections, the process of government formation at the federal and provincial levels has been completed, and now the stage is set for the presidential elections on March 9.

The presidential elections will be conducted according to Article 41 of the Constitution and Schedule II, with the Chief Election Commissioner serving as the Returning Officer for the presidential elections.

The Electoral College for the presidential elections includes both houses of Parliament, all provincial assemblies, and members of the Council of Islamic Ideology. However, any member of Parliament or a provincial assembly can propose and endorse a presidential candidate.

Asif Zardari has been nominated by the government alliance, while Mahmood Khan Achakzai is the candidate backed by the Sunni Ittehad Council.

Votes in the provincial assemblies will be counted using a formula, where the total votes obtained by the candidate are multiplied by the total seats of the respective provincial assembly and divided by the total seats of the Provincial Assembly.

According to the formula, the vote of each member of the Balochistan Assembly will be counted. In case of equal votes for two or more candidates, a draw will be conducted.

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According to the Election Commission, in the presidential election, each member of the Senate, National Assembly, and Balochistan Assembly will have one vote. The number of members of the Balochistan Assembly will be the criterion for the formula. For the Senate, 100 members, for the National Assembly, 336 members will have one vote each for the presidential election.

For Balochistan, 65 members will have one vote for the presidential election. In the 371-member house, one vote will be considered for 5.7 members of the Punjab Assembly. In the 168-member house, one vote will be considered for 2.6 members of the Sindh Assembly. In the 145-member house, one vote will be considered for 2.2 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. The presidential election will be conducted through secret balloting.