By Ansar Mahmood Bhatti

ISLAMABAD, AUG 21 (DNA) – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) nominee Arif Alvi stands bright chances to win the upcoming Presidential election.

The Pakistan People’s Party has nominated known lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan. Mr. Ahsan has served as law minister in the PPP government.

As per details, the President of Pakistan is chosen by an electoral college, in Pakistan. According to Article 41(3) of the Constitution of Pakistan, this electoral college consists of the Senate, the National Assembly of Pakistan, and the Provincial Assemblies of the four provinces.

Members of the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies are directly elected by the people in competitive multi-party elections. Members of the Senate are indirectly elected by the provincial assemblies.

According to law, members of Senate, National Assembly and Baluchistan Assembly will have one vote each. Baluchistan Assembly has 64 members and each member has one vote while in case of rest of the three assemblies, the total strength of members is divided by 65 in order to get voting strength of the respective assembly.

Therefore 342 members of National Assembly, 104 members of Senate and 65×4 (260) members of all four assemblies would constitute the Electoral College for the election of the President. This number is 706.
Currently there are total 330 members in the national assembly. 12 seats are vacant. Out of these 330 seats the PTI and allies have 176 seats while the opposition alliance has 150 seats while there are 04 independents as well.
In Senate 68 seats belong the the Opposition alliance, PTI has 25 and 11 independents are in Senate.
Punjab Assembly 371 ÷ 65: – PTI and allies 189÷5.70 (33 votes), Opposition alliance 171÷5.70 (30 votes), Sindh Assembly, 168÷65 – PTI alliance 65÷2.80 (26 votes), Opposition Alliance 98÷2.80 (38 votes), Tehreek-e- Labaek 3÷2.80 (1 vote).
KPK Assembly, 124÷65 , PTI alliance 85÷1.90 (45 votes), Opposition alliance 33÷1.90 (18 v0tes), Independents two votes.
Baluchistan Assembly, 65 votes. Govt alliance 41 votes, Opposition 16 and 04 independents.
As per these figures PTI and allies are expected to get 346 votes while the opposition may get 320 votes. There are 23 independents also, who would normally go with the ruling party.
Even in case all these independents decide to vote for the opposition alliance even then the Opposition may not be able to get its President elected.
PTI’s Arif Alvi therefore stands bright chances of becoming the next President of Pakistan. He has already approached the allies, who have assured to support him.

The PML N however has some reservations. It thinks PPP betrayed them when it did not cast vote for Shebaz Sharif for prime ministership. Therefore many PML N leaders are of the view that they should not support PPP. However Nawaz Sharif is going to make the final decision.=DNA
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