SUSTAINED propaganda by vested interests notwithstanding, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in close coordination with other state apparatus, has taken all possible measures in a satisfactory manner to make the electoral exercise free, fair and transparent in the true sense of the word. As election campaign ended two days before the polling day to allow a cool down period after hectic political activity and canvassing, the Commission has already completed delivery of 260 million ballot papers to district returning officers despite time constraints and weather-related challenges and the process is underway for their onward transmission to the presiding officers concerned in relevant constituencies. An efficient world class system known as Election Management System (EMS) is in place to gather, tabulate and disseminate results promptly, lending credibility to the elections.
The electoral body must be credited for its hard work and commitment to fulfil its constitutional responsibility despite paucity of time and resources, especially in the backdrop of long-running uncertainty and confusion about the general election. In many constituencies, it had to reprint ballot papers after intervention of the Supreme Court, which allowed many candidates to contest elections, who were barred by the Returning Officers concerned and also lost at initial appeal stages. Regrettably, instead of appreciating the services of the Commission, some circles and quarters throughout continued to spread disinformation about the Commission, the system evolved by it to conduct poll and its very sincerity to make the process transparent. There are 144 District Returning Officers and 859 Returning Officers but on the basis of an internal communication by a single RO, who turned out to be IT-illiterate, attempts were made to trigger controversy about the EMS. This is despite the fact that the system was effectively tested in over forty elections in the country and proved to be highly efficient and reliable. Thousands of training sessions were held to train and familiarize the relevant officers and staff about the entire process including optimum use of the EMS and it is also pertinent to note that 3,000 laptops had been made available for the EMS, and 3,600 software operators had been hired and trained to facilitate returning officers on Election Day. Appreciably, keeping in view frequent and unexpected shutdowns of the Internet Services in the country, the Commission has ensured that the EMS would continue to work in offline mode because of the evolution of Local Area Network (LAN) in collaboration with PTCL and other institutions. To guard against the possibility of disinformation and speculations, one laptop will be dedicated to continuously displaying progressive results over multimedia for the public present in the RO office at a prominent place for live results to be received, allowing them to witness the compilation processes. The presiding officer will send results to the returning officer by capturing an image and sharing it with the returning officer through mobile. The image will display the location where it was taken and the time. The Commission has also taken care of the possibility of electricity failures as laptops will be used and ROs have been asked to arrange UPS/batteries as well. According to the Director Project Management Unit of the ECP, all the security features of an international standard application and would run on a secure private network which would be accessible only to specific individuals on a pre-approved white list. He said the EMS’s backup servers were with NADRA which has 24 years of experience and resources from the government. Based on the comprehensive measures undertaken by the ECP, it would be highly unfortunate and unjust to attribute motives to the Commission or make any attempt to make the elections controversial. The country is passing through a difficult economic period and there is dire need for political stability to ensure continuity of policies and programmes already initiated by the previous coalition government and the incumbent caretaker administration in an attempt to put the country back on track. In a related development, Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Murtaza Solangi, on Monday launched an online platform to facilitate and address media complaints during the Feb 8 elections. Hopefully, the media would not indulge in partisan attitudes and report fairly and objectively on all aspects of the general elections.
