F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday assured smooth operations for upcoming general elections 2024, saying that all its operational and IT systems were working “satisfactorily”.
In a statement issued here, the electoral watchdog said that it wasn’t facing any difficulty in conducting the upcoming general election. The ECP further said that it has developed an automated and modern Election Management System (EMS) that will be used to “transform and compile election results from Presiding to Returning officers”.
It added that the system has been tasted several times for the mentioned purpose. ‘Besides, some additional functions and features have been included to the EMS to facilitate the Returning Officers (ROs) so that the data can be used in future even during the initial phases of the polling process,” it noted.
The ECP mentioned that the main purpose of the EMS system was to transmit and tabulate election results and this system will only be used on the polling day. Rejecting all kind of apprehensions, the commission made it clear that the transmission and tabulation of poll results involve no risk.
It added that there would be no need of Internet during tabulation of election results. However, it said that provision of fiber optic facility is being ensured to the Returning Officers, along with Wi-Fi device as an alternate arrangement. It is pertinent to mention here that the election process entered its second phase on Monday with the returning officers embarking upon the weeklong task of scrutinising the thousands of nomination papers filed during December 22-24 period for the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies.
The process of scrutiny of the nomination papers would continue until December 30 after which the candidates could challenge the decisions of the returning officers, if any, in appellate tribunals until January 3, 2024, which would be decided by January 10, according to the election schedule. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) released the data of papers, which showed that the number of candidates in this election is the highest ever in the country.
Overall 28,626 candidates for both national and provincial assemblies submitted their nomination papers – 7,913 for the 266 general seats of the National Assembly and 18,546 for the 593 general seats of the four provincial assemblies. The numbers are way more than the nomination papers filed in the 2018 general elections. In the previous election five year ago a total of 21,482 nomination papers were submitted, including 5,473 for the general seats of the National Assembly.
