Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), on the directives of the interior ministry, suspended internet services in several districts of Balochistan on Friday.
Internet services will remain suspended till July 31. This will create troubles for the Result Transmission System (RTS), an internet-based application to transmit the results of the polling stations from various constituencies to the commission.
According to PTA’s letter, Pishin, Killa Abdullah and Mastung are among the districts where internet services were suspended on Friday whereas internet services are already unavailable in Awaran, Kech and Kalat since February. PTA also asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to take action in wake of the suspension of internet services.
“The blocking of data services will render the RTS and Vote Verification SMS Service (8300), developed by the ECP/ National Database and Registration Authority, ineffective in these districts,” PTA wrote to ECP.
It is persistent to mention that internet services also continue to remain suspended in most parts of tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) since June 2016.
RESULT TRANSMISSION SYSTEM:
For the first time in Pakistan, NADRA introduced an Android application which enables election officers to send the results to ECP in real time.
With the help of RTS, all Presiding Officers (PO) will be able to transmit Form 45 (containing tabulated results of the polling station) via their phone to ECP on election day.
The app also automatically uses GPS to record the result’s location and the time of the upload. The system will be used to announce constituency results as they are collated.
‘CLICK ECP 2018’:
Besides a short message service, the commission has launched ‘Click ECP 2018’ application on Android’s PlayStore.
The app can be download free of charge on your smartphones to access voting data and polling-related details. Through this app, voters can easily find out their polling stations, whether their vote is registered or not, and the constituency in which the vote is registered.
Through ‘Click ECP 2018’, voters can also stay updated with the commission’s official press statements and election results.
ECP ESTABLISHES INFORMATION CENTRES:
ECP has established General Election Information Centres in all its provincial, regional and district offices. The commission has also released the details of all centres on its website.