Pakistan’s former president Asif Ali Zardari, who lost his wife Benazir Bhutto to a terrorist attack, secured a second term in office on Saturday, despite accusations of electoral fraud.
The Election Commission of Pakistan declared Zardari the winner with 411 votes, while his rival, backed by the opposition, got 181 votes. The votes were cast by national and provincial lawmakers and senators.
Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party, which was led by Bhutto until her death, supported his bid for the largely symbolic post, along with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, which formed a coalition with them after the February 8 elections.
The coalition also included some minor parties and saw PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif become the prime minister on Monday.
Zardari is set to take the oath of office on Sunday.
The February 8 elections were marred by claims of pre-poll manipulation and vote rigging, which targeted the party of former prime minister Imran Khan, who was imprisoned and banned from running. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party faced arrests and censorship, and many of its candidates had to run as independents.
They surprised many by winning more seats than any other party, but not enough to form a government – paving the way for the PML-N and PPP alliance.
However, PTI alleged that a mobile internet shutdown and a huge delay in announcing the results were part of a nationwide scheme to rig the elections and deny them a sweeping victory.
PTI chose Mehmood Khan Achakzai, a legislator from the western city of Quetta, as their candidate for president.
Zardari, 68, first became president in 2008 on a wave of sympathy after Bhutto was killed by a gunman and a suicide bomber while campaigning for re-election.
He has faced repeated corruption charges and spent over 11 years in prison, a long time even for Pakistani politicians.
But he has a knack for surviving scandals that could ruin others.
During his first term – which ended in 2013 – he reduced the powers of the presidency.
But as the head of the PPP, he is expected to guide his party through a fragile coalition after the contentious elections last month.
