Poll result app never crashed: NADRA

Also submits log record of the RTS system from July 25

ISLAMABAD: The Result Transmission System (RTS), a mobile phone application developed by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) never failed during the 2018 general election as has been narrated by some quarters, claimed the authority on Friday.

The government had formed an investigating committee headed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf parliamentary leader in the Senate Azam Swati to look into the RTS fault. The committee was also tasked with identifying those responsible and to suggest action against them.

Nadra in response to Swati’s question maintained that the RTS did not fail moreover it also ensured that it was not possible for any presiding officer to change or tamper with the actual results due to its malfunctioning.



It also claimed that ECP had administrative control of RTS to handle operation including user management, candidates’ addition, and deletion and editing, constituencies and polling scheme management and device registration while Nadra was providing technical hosting services for backend system, the authority stated further in response to another question asked by Senator Swati.

According to the RTS log, submitted to the standing committee on Interior, the mobile application was receiving results of different polling stations right from 6pm of June 25 on the day of election till July 27 when results were concluded. During the 44 hours, according to the log during each hour the application had been getting information from different polling stations.

The RTS was designed to upload the picture of Form 45 by presiding officers via mobile devices which were then supposed to be transmitted to the server of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).  According to the RTS data, the application first received information of Form 45 of 17 polling stations which an hour later swelled to that of 225 polling stations. At 11pm, the application got maximum traffic which was recorded at 15,796. The log further revealed that at 6am on July 26 it received information from 1,007 polling stations and after this period, there was a gradual drop in the data received.



Perhaps it was the time when the ECP internally had admitted of facing ‘big’ issues with the system and asked concerned authorities if the application was not functioning than the presiding officers should directly submit the forms to the ROs.

Furthermore, during the session it was also determined that two types of software were used by the ECP during the election— Result Management System (RMS) and the RTS.

The ECP faced severe criticism after results were delayed on the polling day and the ECP had been stating failure/sluggishness of the RTS system behind delay in transmission of election results.

Under Election Act 2017, the ECP was made bound to establish a transparent results management system for expeditious counting, tabulation, compilation, transmission, dissemination and publication of results in the official Gazette and the website of the commission.

The RO shall compile the provisional results forthwith and, on or before 2am, the day immediately following the polling day, communicate these results electronically to the ECP.

Under the Action Act, the presiding officer shall immediately take snapshot of the result of the count and, as soon as connectivity is available and it is practicable, electronically send it to the commission and the RO before sending original documents under section 90.

The contract between ECP and Nadra for RTS application was signed on February 14, 2018 and RTS application was finalised on May 15 this year.