ISLAMAABAD – A population of 220 million people in the country and millionsof Pakistanis outside Pakistan won’t be able to know who is ruling Pakistanfor the next five years until the next day of Elections in the afternoon.
The leading cause in this regard is a deficit in infrastructure supportthat is introduced by Election Commission of Pakistan when it comes to thelanding of Polling station wise results in its master control room forannouncing results on the election day.
For the purpose of ensuring transparency and quick compilation of electionresults, ECP is using an Android-based mobile application called ResultsTransmission System (RTS). Another noteworthy fact in this regard is thatECP is using RTS mobile app in this regard for the first time in country’shistory.
Even though the commission reported that the pilot project tests of RTS appwere satisfactory but the major challenge was that not every presidingofficer owned an Android smartphone that supported the app. So, the delayin announcement of results is inevitable. Furthermore, a number of officersare hailing from remote areas of the country to perform the duty ofpresiding officer. It is not quite possible for ECP to ensure all of themown a smartphone and have internet connectivity to make use of the app.
While a few took to social media and expressed their concerns and said thatnot having smartphones tarnished their self-respect during the training.
The commission is taking measures to train government officials viatechnical assistance from NADRA. While political experts perceive this ideato be quite helpful in terms of transparency of the results.
Talking to a news source, ECP Spokesman Nadeem Qasim said that ECP isdedicated to holding general elections on time and in free, fair andtransparent manner.
While talking about the challenges such as unavailability of signals in faroff and remote areas, he told that Officers would need to travel a fewkilometers away from the polling stations to find mobile data signals. Hebelieved that this app is going to significantly enhance efficiency. Hefurther believed that this will help them in discouraging unofficial resultannouncements by electronic media. He further told that the commission willbe giving 1000 PKR to each PO who will be using RTS to transfer electionresults through RTS.
Ex-Secretary of ECP, Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad told The Nation that thissystem might not work on seventy percent remote areas of the country.
As per the Election Act 2017, the presiding officer has to instantly take asnapshot of the result of the count and electronically send it to ECP andreturning officer as soon as the connectivity is available. Afterward, heshall send the original document under section 90