ISLAMABAD – A phone app and a database of more than 50 million voterswere key weapons in the successful campaign of cricket legend Imran Khan inlast month’s general election, though rivals allege Khan also receivedclandestine aid from Pakistan’s powerful military.
How Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party used the database and theassociated app represents a sea change in the antiquated way in whichPakistan’s biggest parties conduct elections, from pre-poll targeting ofvoters to on-the-day mobilization of supporters.
PTI was secretive about the technology plan ahead of the July 25 poll,fearing rivals could copy it, but several party workers showed Reuters howthe app transformed their campaign and gave them an edge.
The phone app proved especially useful in getting supporters to the pollswhen the government’s own telephone information service giving out pollingplace locations suffered major problems on election day, leaving otherparties scrambling.
It partly explains why Khan’s party managed to win tight-margin races inthe nuclear-armed nation of 208 million people, though Khan’s rivals allegehe also benefited from the powerful military’s support – an allegation hestaunchly denies.
“It’s had a great impact,” said Amir Mughal, tasked with using the app anddatabase, known as the Constituency Management System (CMS), to elect AsadUmar, a lawmaker who won his seat in Islamabad and will be Khan’s newfinance minister.
The small CMS unit led by Mughal, Umar’s personal secretary, was typical ofhow Khan’s party set up teams in constituencies across Pakistan to mine thedatabase, identifying voters by household, zeroing-in on “confirmed” PTIvoters, tagging them on the app, and ensuring they turned out on electionday.
“Work that would take days of weeks is being completed in one to twohours,” Mughal told Reuters in Umar’s office minutes after the polls shut.
Khan’s PTI surpassed expectations to scoop about 115 seats out of 272elected members of parliament, while the party of ousted and jailed premierNawaz Sharif trailed in second with 64 seats.
Developed by a small tech team, the CMS was a key response to Khan’s bittercomplaints after the 2013 poll loss that his party failed to translate masspopularity into votes because it did not know the “art of winningelections”.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ran a more erratic campaign,hurt by divisions within the party and the loss of key leaders who wereeither disqualified or in case of Sharif and his daughter, jailed.
Weeks before the elections, Khan sent out a video via WhatsApp urging PTIcandidates to embrace CMS.
“I have seen and experienced how it works and I’m using it in all fiveconstituencies I am contesting,” Khan said in the video message, seen byReuters. “The faster you apply this system, the easier your life willbecome,” Khan added.