In a televised address Irshad said over 43.97 million people including postal ballot voters exercised their right to vote in the referendum to elect General Mosharraf as President for next five years. 

Some 282,935 votes were declared invalid. 

The Chief Election Commissioner, however, did not specify the precise percentage or yardstick to determine the total turnout in the Presidential referendum.

Under the revised electoral list, the total registered number of voters in Pakistan is 61.9 million. Calculation against the total registered number of the voters makes up the overall turnout in the Presidential referendum up to 71 per cent

President Mosharraf, who cast his vote at Fatima Jinnah Women University in Rawalpindi, along with wife Sehba Mosharraf and mother, was quite upbeat about the voter’s response.

Opposition feared that the lack of an electoral roll would lead to multiple voting or ballot stuffing appeared to be justified as many voters openly queued up time and again to make their marks.

At one station a woman claimed to have cast her vote no less than 60 times, while schoolgirls aged well under the qualifying 18 years were seen voting at another.

Nawaz Bhutto said he paid several visits to different polling centres in the Lyari district, despite "indelible" ink marks made on his fingers to stop multiple voting. "I voted eight times as it was not very difficult to remove the ink. It was really fun," he said.

Some 70 million people are eligible to participate, but only a trickle of ballots were reported at most centres, except where crowds had been rounded up to impress visiting officials and international observers.

Information Minister Nisar Memon claimed that the preliminary reports suggest that the turnout would be more than the government’s expectations. "It would be twice as much as of the heavy mandate of the last elections in 1997", Memon said.

In 1997 general elections, 36 percent of the total registered votes were cast out of which Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif claimed 16 percent.

Two opposition activists were seen being arrested by police in Multan after they tried to distribute anti-referendum pamphlets.

Many traders in Quetta had pledged their support for the referendum, but a strike called by opposition leaders had reduced the turnout.

In rural areas turnout was said to be slightly better although seasonal harvests were keeping many people busy.

Thinking herself unobserved, a polling officer quietly stamped ballot papers with a "yes" vote, falsifying votes. Challenged by a journalists' team, the presiding officer at a government college for women in Rawalpindi said her superiors had given her no choice.

"I have been told by the principal to complete 500 votes at my booth," she told newsmen, explaining that only 150 people had cast their votes. "What can we do?" she asked, clearly distressed and explaining she had been put under huge pressure. "We are government servants and we have to do our job."

Many of Pakistan's roughly five million public sector employees complained they had been forced to vote.

"If you force me to go and vote, you cannot force me to say 'yes'," information secretary Anwar Mahmood told newsmen. "If you force me, I will go and vote 'no'." "While working in government, you can't say 'no'," said one civil servant voting alongside his colleagues in Islamabad.