ECP to conduct mock EMS exercise on 26th
Provincial election commissioners have been directed to circulate the directions/SoPs with mock poll guidelines to all returning officers
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan has decided to go for a mock exercise of the election management system (EMS) on January 26 at the Returning Officer (RO) Office level throughout the country.
The commission has written to the four provincial election commissioners (PECs) in this connection and issued the standard operating procedures (SoPs) and guidelines with regard to the planned exercise, about two weeks before the nation goes to polls on February 8. The letter reads that ROs must certify and finalize Form-28, Form-33 in the EMS and map the Presiding Officers to Polling Stations till January 25. A dummy Form-45 will be provided to all ROs on January 25. The ROs will ask the presiding officers to start sending the result of 1-2 pages of each NA and PA constituency from their Mobile App on 26th at 5pm. (They can take snapshot of any page considering it Form-45). EMS operators will start data entry of results from 5pm on January 26 till the completion of data entry of Form-45. On completion of Form-45 data entry, the ROs will generate Form-47.
According to the letter, after the mock-poll, on January 27 the ROs may ensure that all presiding officers perform clear data/cache activity as per attached guidelines. All EMS operators may facilitate all presiding officers in clearing the data/cache on phone and share these guidelines with all.
The provincial election commissioners have been directed to circulate the directions/SoPs with mock-poll guidelines to all returning officers of the respective provinces for the conduct of mock-poll. Guidelines have also been issued for clearing the date/cache from EMS Mobile App, which are: Mock Poll Data/ Result may be cleared and your phone will be ready for actual result on the poll day, i.e. Feb 8, 2024. 1. Go to settings of your Mobile Phone. 2. Click on Apps. (if you could not see Apps, write manage Apps in search box) 3. Click on Manage Apps. 4. All installed Apps will be displayed. Click on ECP Mobile. 5. Click on Storage. 6. Click on Clear Data button. 7. Click on Clear All data or Clear Cache. 8. This will warn you that all data will be permanently deleted. Click OK. “By performing the above steps on your mobile phone, the dummy result of the mock poll will be cleared/wiped off,” reads the letter.
In the 2018 elections, the Result Transmission System (RTS) had not been a success story, as different stakeholders, particularly political parties, had expressed serious concerns in this context.
