Pakistan Elections 2024: Polling body's new app faces glitches as authorities grapple with result delays

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PTI. According to details, shared by The Dawn, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) prepared the Election Management System (EMS) app for transmission of results from each polling station to a centralized system where the Returning Offices would complete the tabulation of all results. However, Presiding Officers at several polling stations on Thursday evening found themselves unable to transmit the final results of their respective stations using the much-touted and homegrown system, the Dawn Newspaper reported, adding, an absence of connectivity.

Due to this, there has been an unusual delay in declaring the election results to the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies. ALSO READ: Pakistan elections 2024: Violence, poll rigging, systemic errors — here's what voters experienced at polls Earlier in 2018, the ECP’s Result Transmission System (RTS) was clogged when thousands of polling stations began sending results from all parts of the country. This caused delays in the announcement of the results of some constituencies.

With situations going out of hand, the ECP official said that the presiding officers would now 'physically' send the results of their polling stations to the offices of their respective returning officers. This would be transmitted via the system 'once internet service is restored', the report said. It was expected that CEC would address a press conference, however, Special Secretary Zafar Iqbal appeared on state-run PTV just before 3 am on Friday to announce the first official results from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly.