ISLAMABAD: While some smaller parties are yet to announce which of the two presidential candidates they will support on Tuesday, PML-N’s Mamnoon Hussain appears certain to win by a large majority and poll more than 400 of the 674 electoral votes.

Mr Hussain, along with some PML-N leaders called on JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday to seek support of his party.

JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai told Dawn that Mr Hussain, Raja Zafarul Haq, Ishaq Dar and Iqbal Zafar Jhagra had met the Maulana at his residence.

He said the JUI-F chief had told the PML-N team that his party would take a final decision on Monday.

After the decision of the PPP and its allies to boycott the election in protest against the Supreme Court’s decision to advance the polling date to July 30 from August 6, more than 50 per cent members of the Senate and the Sindh Assembly would stay away from the voting process. This boycott may not affect the chances of Mr Hussain’s victory but it will raise questions about the election’s credibility.

In the 104-member Senate, the ruling party’s candidate is expected to get only 37 votes because 60 senators will not turn up on the polling day.

Retired justice Wajihuddin Ahmed of the PTI will not get any vote from the Senate since his party and its ally Jamaat-i-Islami have no representation in the upper house because of their boycott of the 2008 polls.

A total of 154 electoral votes (23pc) will not be polled on Tuesday due to the boycott of the PPP, Awami National Party, Balochistan National Party-A and Awami Muslim League and the PML-Q’s decision to abstain.

A projected outcome of the presidential poll shows the PML-N candidate will secure 402 votes and PTI’s Justice Wajihuddin get 74 votes. And if the JUI-F also decides to vote for Mr Hussain his vote tally is expected to go up to 436.

The votes will be calculated according to a formula given in the Second Schedule of the constitution. The formula gives equal representation to provincial assemblies.

The Presidential Election Rules of 1988, devised in the light of Article 41 of the constitution, provide for a 1,170-member electoral college of both houses of parliament and the four provincial assemblies. But the total number of votes, according to the formula, is 706. As some 50 seats are vacant in all legislatures, the number of electoral votes will be 674.

The electoral college comprises 342 members of the National Assembly, 104 of the Senate, 371 of the Punjab Assembly, 168 of the Sindh Assembly, 124 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 65 of the Balochistan Assembly.

As the Balochistan Assembly is the smallest house with 62 members, votes in the three other provincial assemblies will be divided by 62 and 5.98 MPAs of Punjab, 2.71 of Sindh and 2.0 of the KP will be equivalent to one vote.

On the other hand, one-member-one-vote formula is applied in the NA, the Senate and the Balochistan Assembly.

In the National Assembly, the coalition comprising the PML-N, the PML-F, the PkMAP, the NP and other smaller groups has the strength of 229 MNAs, compared with 34 of PTI and JI.

On the other hand, 46 members of the PPP, the ANP, the BNP-A, the PML-Q and AML of Sheikh Rashid will not be polled because of the boycott.

The PML-N enjoys an absolute majority in the Punjab Assembly with 302 MPAs in a 354-member house. Thus the PML-N is expected to get 54 electoral votes in Punjab against five of the PTI.

The PTI’s candidate is, however, far ahead in the KP Assembly and is expected to poll 33 votes against Mr Hussain’s 12.

In Sindh, the PML-N and its allies are expected to get 25 electoral votes whereas 35 votes will not be polled due to the boycott by the PPP. Justice Wajihuddin is expected to get only two votes.