Pakistan on Tuesday elected businessman Mamnoon Hussain as 12th president of the nuclear-armed state, replacing the unpopular Asif Ali Zardari whose five-year term expires in September.

Lawmakers from both houses of the national Parliament and four provincial assemblies voted Hussain into the ceremonial post in a move that will cement the authority of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Hussain secured 432 votes and his only rival Wajihuddin Ahmed 77, Fakhruddin Ebrahim, head of the election commission, announced live on television. “As a result Mamnoon Hussain is declared... President of Pakistan,” he added.

Constitutional amendments passed by Zardari’s government mean that the presidency is again a ceremonial post, a status likely to be cemented by the fact that Hussain has little personal clout.

Hussain, who comes from the financial capital Karachi, gives the southern province Sindh at least a token stake in the central government otherwise dominated by Sharif’s Punjab power base. His background in textiles and as an ex-president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry also reflects the government’s number one task of reviving the stagnant economy.