The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sought the assistance of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe an ‘anonymous’ phone call directing polling staff to stop using the Result Transmission System (RTS) on election night.
The Android-based application had ‘crashed’ during the general elections. ECP and NADRA pointed fingers at each other for the system’s failure while political parties cited it as a ‘proof’ of rigging.
Briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, ECP revealed that an anonymous phone call was made to election officials on the night of July 25/26. The caller had allegedly ordered returning officers to not use RTS.
ECP officials informed the Senate committee that the commission has requested FIA to conduct a forensic audit of the voice message saved in a USB – which has been sent to the FIA – and submit a comprehensive report at the earliest in order for the inquiry to proceed further.
Under Election Act 2017, the ECP was made bound to establish a transparent results management system for expeditious counting, tabulation, compilation, transmission, dissemination and publication of results in the official Gazette and the website of the commission.
Two type of software were used by the ECP during the general election 2018 – the RMS and the RTS. The ECP introduced the RMS to further improve accuracy, efficiency and transparency of the results.
The RMS was supposed to have the capacity to store all the scanned pages of Forms-XIV, XVI & XVII along with data, stored into the database, permanently for audit trail accountability purposes.
The returning officers (ROs) were supposed to compile the provisional results and, on, or before 2am, the day immediately following polling day and communicate these results electronically to the ECP.
Under the act, the presiding officer is to immediately take a snapshot of the result and, as soon as the connectivity is available and it is practicable, electronically send it to the ECP and the ROS before sending the original documents under section 90.
Election
