Concerns raised by ROs over Election Management System

ISLAMABAD: A pair of returning officers (RO) have highlighted concerns regarding the Election Management System (EMS), slated for use in the collection and tabulation of results during the upcoming February 8 general polls, Dawn News reported on Monday.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has endorsed the system, asserting that the nationwide trial of the EMS has proven to be successful. However, Abdul Qadir Mashori, the Assistant Commissioner of Qambar (AC) and RO for National Assembly seat NA-197 (Qambar-Shahdadkot-II), and Usman Khaskheli, the Assistant Commissioner of Bakrani and RO for PS-12 (Larkana-III) seat of the Sindh Assembly, have independently communicated similar concerns about the EMS in letters to their respective superiors.

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Mashori’s letter, dated February 3, addressed to the Qambar-Shahdadkot district returning officer (DRO), highlighted issues with the EMS, which he later confirmed were resolved in a subsequent letter.

Sources have confirmed that Khaskheli also penned a letter to the Larkana DRO, expressing concerns about the EMS. Despite multiple attempts to contact him, Khaskheli could not be reached for his perspective.

In his letter, Mashori noted that the data pertaining to the duties assigned to polling officials were uploaded to the EMS but later discovered to be missing. He expressed concern about the system’s reliability and validity, stating, “This weakness of the system has created many issues and also raises a question mark on the reliability and validity of the software.” The RO further raised apprehensions about the system being an “utter failure” or potentially being “controlled” by external entities.

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Mashori claimed that these reservations were verbally communicated to both ECP and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) officials. However, despite these complaints, the issues remain unresolved, with both bodies attributing the problems to a “technical glitch.”