Daily Times

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday sough an explanation from provincial election commissioners and district returning officers about the delay in July 25 poll results.

The commission, in a written order, asked responsible officers to explain delay in poll results.

A day after the countrywide polls, on July 26, ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob said the results of 2018 General Election were delayed due to a technical glitch.

While speaking to media, he had said that there was no conspiracy in delay of results, adding that the delay was a result of a malfunction in the result transmission system (RTS) while data was entered into it.

“The RTS system had not been tested in Pakistan,” he remarked.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, too, complained of delay in results of General Election 2018. He also said his party’s candidates had complained that their polling agents were thrown out of polling stations across the country.

Pakistan voted for the country’s second consecutive democratic transfer of power on Wednesday, July 25, 2018. Polling began at 8am across the country’s 85,307 polling stations and continued until without any break until 6pm despite calls by several major parties, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, to extend the polling time by an hour.

Published in Daily Times, August  2^nd 2018.