The presidential election will be held today to elect the 13th president of Pakistan, for next five years. Polling will begin at 10am and will continue till 4pm, Radio Pakistan reported.

All opposition parties, excluding the Pakistan Peoples Party, have nominated Maulana Fazl as their consensus candidate for the election of president. The PPP has fielded Senator Aitzaz Ahsan as its candidate.

However, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is confident that its candidate Dr Arif Alvi will win the presidential election comfortably.

Briefing media persons in Islamabad on Monday, Additional Director General ECP Nadeem Qasim said Chief Election Commissioner will submit the results to the federal government on Wednesday.

He said that according to the law, the federal government will announce the final results.

Nadeem said only state-run TV will be allowed to record the process and it will share the content with other media channels.

A joint session of the parliament will be held in which members of National Assembly and Senate will exercise their right to vote. Voting will be held through a secret ballot.

Similarly, provincial assemblies will hold separate sessions for the election.

The PML-N on Monday repeatedly made appeals to the PPP leadership to withdraw its presidential candidate Aitzaz Ahsan in favour of the ‘joint’ opposition nominee Fazlur Rehman.

Rehman delivered a media talk and made last-ditch efforts to convince PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari to back him in the presidential election.

"For my withdrawal, I will have to take into confidence five parties," said the JUI chief, whose party is one-fifth of the Muttahida Majlis–e–Amal (MMA) — a religiopolitical alliance. "For PPP it is easier to withdraw its candidate," he added in response to PPP leader Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira's call for Rehman to withdraw his candidacy earlier on Sunday.

However, PPP-Parliamentarians Secretary General Farhat Ullah Babar on Monday said that his party would never withdraw the name of Aitzaz Ahsan for contesting the presidential election. The PPP leader urged PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif to withdraw the name of their candidate from the race.