Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, was elected president of Pakistan on Saturday, election commission officials said. Zardari, who had been widely expected to win, had secured 458 out of 702 electoral college votes, according to partial Election Commission results.Members of the two-chamber parliament and four provincial assemblies voted for a replacement for Pervez Musharraf, who resigned last month. Security was tight as secret voting began shortly after 10:00 am.
The presidential election comes at a sensitive time for the nuclear-armed, Muslim-majority nation of 160 million. Zardari himself has already moved house due to fears of attempts being made on his life, nine months after Bhutto was killed at a campaign rally.
Tensions rose further this week after a failed assassination attempt on Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, whose car was hit by sniper fire as it drove to meet him at an airport on Wednesday.
Zardari, 53, will face a multitude of other problems if he defeats his two opponents, retired chief justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui, who is backed by former premier Nawaz Sharif, and Mushahid Hussain, a close aide of Musharraf.
The president can dissolve parliament and appoint army chiefs, and chairs the joint civilian-military committee that controls Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
A horse-loving aristocrat who has spent more years in prison than in politics, Zardari has impressed and surprised many with his ability to concentrate power since his wife was killed in a December and he inherited the leadership of her party.