Pakistan regulator conducts mock test of election management system ahead of national polls

A street is festooned with flags of political parties ahead of Pakistan's national elections 2024, in Quetta on January 21, 2024. (AFP)

• Pakistan is holding national polls on Feb. 8, in which 17,800 candidates are running for 266 national and 593 provincial seats
• In the last elections in 2018, the result transmission system of election regulator collapsed, delaying the election results by days

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s election oversight body has conducted a mock exercise of the use of its Election Management System (EMS), including a test of results transmission, for the upcoming national elections, it said on Saturday, adding the exercise remained “successful.”
Pakistan is holding the national polls on February 8, in which 17,800 candidates are running for 266 National Assembly and 593 provincial assembly seats. A total of 128.5 million voters will be exercising their right to vote in the elections.
After the 2018 elections, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) came under intense criticism following the collapse of its results transmission system that delayed poll results by days, leading to allegations of rigging by political parties.
On Saturday, the ECP the mock exercise remained successful and yielded “useful and encouraging results.”
“The offices of returning officers established at 859 locations across the country participated in this trial exercise, during which stages of Fiber/DSL connectivity, EMS app log-in, usage and transmission and compilation of results were fully practiced and the successful transmission of results by presiding officers through EMS and their compilation by returning officers was completed,” it said in a statement.
The overall delivery of results by presiding officers was satisfactory, according to the ECP.
However, due to connectivity issues at a few places during the exercise, there were minor challenges in the transmission of results faced by some presiding officers, which were being rectified immediately.
“During this exercise, all ROs completed the compilation of results with complete success and there was no difficulty whatsoever,” it added.
The regulator further said if a presiding officer faced any problem in sending the results to the RO through his mobile phone, then they would personally deliver the results to the RO office.