How do legislators choose the president of the country?

KARACHI: As Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) accelerate their efforts to garner necessary support ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for March 9, it is imperative to understand how the head of state of the country I selected, News reported on Sunday.

PPP's Asif Ali Zardari, who is supported by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and others, is considering his second presidency. he mandate and is set to compete for the coveted seat against Mahmood Khan Achakzai, who has been nominated by the PTI-backed independent candidates, who have since joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), as their presidential candidate.

According to article 41 of the Constitution, the president is the head of state of the country and has the duty to “represent the unity of the republic.” Additionally, the office holder must be Muslim, cannot be less than 45 years old, and must qualify to be elected as a member of the AN.

The election of the president begins when the ECP fixes the date for the election. For the 2024 elections, this step of the process has already been completed.

Then come the stages of filing the nomination papers, the deadline for which expired a day earlier, on Saturday (March 2), and the presentation of the nomination papers before the presidents in Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, which have already have been completed.

This is followed by the scrutiny of nomination papers by the returning officers and is scheduled to take place on March 4 (tomorrow) and the ECP will release a list of nominated candidates on the same day.

Then comes the voting phase that will take place on March 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in NA and in all provincial assemblies.

Who can vote for president?

Since the president is the face of the federation, he can be elected by the entire electoral college: the parliament comprising the AN and the Senate, and the four provincial legislatures.

Voting to elect the president takes place in a special session of parliament in Islamabad in which both senators and deputies vote for the presidential candidate of their choice, while provincial assemblies vote in separate sessions convened in their respective legislatures. .

How are presidential votes allocated?

The Senate and AN vote on a one-member, one-vote basis, but the four provincial assemblies follow a different formula.

Because it is the smallest legislature, only the Balochistan Assembly has the option of one member and one vote, as it essentially sets the standard for how votes are divided in the other three provincial assemblies, whose votes are counted by dividing them by the total. strength of the Balochistan Assembly (which has 65 members).

For example, the total strength of 371 members of the Punjab Assembly will be divided by 65. The result of 5.71 is the number of votes counted as one vote in the provincial legislature. The same weighting formula is followed in the Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assemblies.

Voting process

Under the Second Schedule, the ECP will conduct the presidential elections, with the chief election commissioner as the returning officer of the elections. ECP-appointed presidents will preside over elections in parliament and provincial assemblies.

The voting process itself is also detailed in the Second Annex. On March 9, when the electoral college meets to vote for the president, each member of parliament and each provincial legislature will receive a ballot.

Voting will be done by secret ballot, which means that each member will vote by marking ballots that will contain the names of all candidates in alphabetical order. The vote will then be placed in a ballot box placed in front of the president.

What happens next?

Once the voting is completed, the president, in the presence of the candidates or their authorized representatives, will open and empty the ballot boxes and examine the ballots.

Invalid votes will be rejected and the total number of valid votes will be reported to the chief election commissioner. The votes of the provincial assemblies will be computed according to the aforementioned formula.

According to the second schedule, the chief election commissioner will declare the candidate who has obtained the highest number of votes as the winner.

The result will then be communicated to the federal government, which will declare the winner through public notification.