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Supporters of the Pakistan People's Party celebrate the winner Asif Ali Zardari

Photo: Nadeem Khawar / EPA

In Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007, was elected president of the country for the next five years, according to the electoral authority on Saturday.

The 68-year-old co-chairman of the co-ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) received 411 votes, according to the preliminary results announced by the authority.

Zardari is the first civilian to hold this office for the second time in the South Asian nuclear power with a population of more than 240 million.

Zardari's rival Mahmood Khan Achakzai was supported by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of former, now imprisoned Prime Minister Imran Khan and received 181 votes.

The leader of the PTI, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, then described Zardari's election as "unconstitutional".

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The president is elected by secret ballot by an electoral college composed of the Senate, the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies.

Once a powerful position, the office of president in Pakistan now has a more symbolic function: its powers had already been curtailed by a constitutional amendment in 2010.

New Prime Minister Sharif has only been in office for a few days

Only last Monday, Shehbaz Sharif of the PML-N Muslim League officially took office as prime minister following the controversial elections on February 8th.

The 72-year-old's party and the People's Party PPP, which Zardari's son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari leads, had agreed on a government coalition with several small parties after neither of the two established parties won a majority in the parliamentary election.

Asif Ali Zardari was president from 2008 to 2013 and was the first to complete the five-year term.

In June 2019 he was arrested on charges of money laundering and corruption, but was transferred from prison to a hospital a few weeks later and released on bail in December of that year due to his health condition.

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007.

kek/dpa