Mr 10% sweeps Pakistan presidential polls

Asif Ali Zardari secured a large win in Pakistan’s presidential elections on Saturday, capping a remarkable rise from jail, exile and his wife Benazir Bhutto’s assassination just nine months ago.

The controversial front-runner swept a poll among lawmakers to become the 14th president in Pakistan’s short but turbulent history, taking power in the world’s only nuclear-armed Islamic state and frontline “war on terror” ally.

“It is an historic win. It is a victory for democracy,” said Sherry Rehman, the country’s information minister and a close aide of Bhutto.

“This man suffered jail for more than 11 years for the sake of democracy and today he is elected as the president of the country and it is a sign of the strengthening of democracy.”

Zardari secured 281 out of 426 parliamentary votes and won a thumping majority in three of the four provincial assemblies forming the presidential electoral college, officials said.

The 53-year-old defeated retired chief justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui, who was backed by former premier Nawaz Sharif, and Mushahid Hussain, a close aide of Musharraf.

He had been the clear favourite in a three-way race to take power after Pervez Musharraf’s nearly nine-year rule marked by Islamic militancy and economic turmoil...Agence France-Presse