Daily Times

National Coordinator for the Free and Fair Election Network (FAFFEN) Rashid Chaudhry Wednesday said that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was utilizing technology to strengthen the upcoming general polling process 2024 in the country and for timely election results to make the process smooth.

Talking to a private news channel, he said that as the general elections are knocking on doors, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and FAFEN had issued various deadlines for the election process, including the final stage of the elections – the transmission of the results.

He said that the ECP instructed all the returning officers (RO) and the presiding officers that the election results of the February 8 vote must be sent by 2 a.m.

“Technology will be fully used to make the general elections 2024 transparent and impartial”, he stated.

For that purpose, the Election Management System (EMS) would be used, through which the presiding officer concerned would forward the picture of ‘Form 45’ to the RO immediately, he mentioned.

Replying to a question, he explained that the presiding officers would be obliged to send the results of all the polling stations electronically or through available means.

This year ECP 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”, he mentioned.

He said FAFFEN had asked ECP that all political parties and contesting candidates should deploy trained polling agents at all polling booths of all polling stations.

To another question, he said that all arrangements have been completed for the timely dispatch of results on the February 8 elections.