Pakistan's election commission has developed a new app called the Election Management System (EMS) to quickly and accurately transmit and tabulate the election results. However, some officials have raised concerns about the possibility of the software being manipulated to influence the outcome of the polls, which are scheduled to take place on Thursday.
The EMS app will be used to transmit results from each polling station to a centralized system, where the Returning Offices will complete the tabulation of all results and prepare and release the results of each constituency. Despite concerns raised by some officials, the Election Commission of Pakistan has declared the countrywide test run of the EMS app a success and is planning to use it on February 8.
According to the Indian Express, two election officials in Sindh province pointed out flaws in the EMS following the second test run last week. Abdul Qadir Mashori, the Qambar assistant commissioner (AC) and Returning Officer (RO) for National Assembly seat NA-197 (Qambar-Shahdadkot-II), and Usman Khaskheli, the Bakrani AC and RO for Sindh Assembly seat PS-12 (Larkana-III) have both written to their superiors, expressing very similar concerns about the EMS.
Mashori's letter, which was released on Sunday, was delivered to the Qambar-Shahdadkot district returning officer on February 3. Mashori told the Dawn newspaper that the issues he had raised were later resolved and that he had communicated this in a follow-up letter.
Mashori stated in his letter that the data regarding polling officials' duties were uploaded to the EMS, but it was later "found missing". "This weakness of [the] system has created many issues and also raises questions on the reliability and validity of the software." The official expressed concern that the system was either an "utter failure" or was being "controlled" by someone. The report also cited sources who confirmed that Khaskheli wrote a similar letter to the Larkana district returning officer.
According to the Dawn newspaper, the ECP issued standard operating procedures and guidelines to all four provincial election commissioners in a letter dated January 26 to hold a mock EMS exercise.
Senator Taj Haider, in charge of the Pakistan Peoples Party's election cell, expressed concern about the possible misuse of EMS in a letter to the ECP on January 29. "We have the honour to bring to your notice our serious objections to the introduction of a completely new and unfamiliar application (EMS Mobile App) for electronic transmission of Result of Count (Form 45) from Presiding Officers to Returning Officers," he wrote in his letter.
After facing criticism and complaints, the ECP had to come out in defence of the EMS, which has become a subject of growing controversy. The ECP Secretary, Syed Asif Hussain, addressed a press conference on Monday and ruled out any possibility of manipulation. He assured that the EMS would work even if the internet connection failed, as Returning Officers (ROs) would still be able to compile all results offline. Moreover, more than 60 ROs in remote areas have also been provided with satellite connectivity to keep them connected.
Reporters posed similar questions to Colonel Saad, the project director of the ECP's Project Management Unit (PMU). When asked about the possibility of the EMS being hacked and the results manipulated to benefit a particular political party, Saad stated that the system had all of the security features of an international standard application and would run on a secure private network accessible only to specific individuals on a pre-approved white list.
Regarding the allegation that the system is being manipulated, Saad stated that he spoke with the returning officer, who suggested that someone else may be in control of the system. "The problem faced by the RO has been resolved," that's what he said.
The ECP's chief of the IT section, Khizar Aziz, stated that the EMS technology had been upgraded and had already been used in 40 elections. He pointed out that the National Operations Center was built to international standards, and several power backups were installed to keep it operational during emergencies.
Aziz explained that polling station presiding officers will send compiled results to their returning officer via EMS. If there's an issue with the delivery, the presiding officer will personally convey the results to the returning officer, and the EMS will immediately detect any changes in the results.
During the previous elections in 2018, the ECP's Result Transmission System (RTS) became clogged when thousands of polling stations began sending results from all over the country, causing delays in the announcement of results for some constituencies, which were exploited by the losing parties as an alleged deliberate effort to rig the results. The ECP's chief of the IT section, Khizar Aziz, stated that the EMS technology had been upgraded and had already been used in 40 elections. He pointed out that the National Operations Center was built to international standards, and several power backups were installed to keep it operational during emergencies.
Senator Haider's letter also mentioned the problems caused by the RTS in 2018. "We apprehend that a situation similar to that of the failure of RTS in General Elections of 2018 can emerge which like General Elections 2018 will be used for massive rigging of the results besides causing long delays in compiling of the provisional results by the Returning Officers," he went on to say. With the elections just a day away, the ECP is still addressing concerns about the EMS, which observers believe is a bad omen for the future of elections.
(With inputs from PTI)
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