Failure of RTS to cost election commission Rs 250m

ISLAMABAD: The failure of Result Transmission System (RTS) on the election day has cost the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Rs250 million.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has also sent a letter to the Cabinet Division directing it to conduct an inquiry into failure of its RTS during the general elections on July 25.

According to a letter sent to the Cabinet Division, the ECP directed the Cabinet Division to constitute an inquiry committee comprising experts from National Telecommunication and Information Technology Security Board (NTITSB) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and finalize the inquiry report within one month.

Meanwhile, it was earlier reported that the ECP was finalizing the reasons of failure of RTS (Results Transmission System) on July 25.

An official of ECP had told a state-run wire service that it is an international practice that any system introduced is practiced before launching but due to shortage of time the Result Transmission System could not be tested.

He also said it was the demand of parliamentarians to launch and practice RTS in election 2018.

Now ECP was analyzing the reasons of failure of this system and share the findings with the media.

He said, for the first time an online system to share results from 85,000 polling stations around the country to the central headquarters in Election Commission of Pakistan was introduced.

The commission, he said, was investigating those complaints where results on a piece of plain paper were released instead of the ECP’s-issued Form-45. Sufficient copies of the forms were available with the commission, he added.

What is RTS?

The RTS is an android application which enables election officers to send the results to the ECP in real time.

Nadra teams had to go to the offices of Returning Officers to activate the RTS software, and according to the ECP, the RTS software was installed in the smartphones of all Presiding Officers (PO) who were able to transmit Form 45 (containing tabulated results of the polling station) via their phone to the ECP on election day.