What's the big deal with Form 45?

Tooba Masood Published July 26, 2018

KARACHI: Soon after polling ended across the country, most political parties — including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz — protested that their polling agents were not being given Form 45 on Wednesday. Form 45 is one of the most important documents of the post-polling process and here’s why:

Q. What is form 45?

A. Form 45, previously Form 14, is known as the statement of the count, according to the Election Commission of Pakistan. It is supposed to show the number of valid votes for each contesting candidate and ballot papers excluded from the count. This form also includes gender-disaggregated data on the basis of male and female voters scored out from the electoral rolls in the relevant polling booth(s).

Q. Can these details be shared?

A. The result of this data can be shared with polling agents and candidates present at polling stations.

The form is also signed by the presiding officer, assistant presiding officer, and an accredited observer and agents as may be present. The presiding officer may note on the forms if any such person refused to sign. Copies of the polling station results forms are stamped and thumb marked by the presiding officer and the most senior assistant presiding officer, and should be given to candidates and agents present with a receipt obtained.

Q. How are these forms sent to the ECP?

The presiding officer takes a screenshot of the form and uploads it onto the Results Transmission System, an Android application which enables election officers to send the results to the ECP in real time.

Presiding officers are required to immediately send a screenshot of the form (as soon as internet connectivity is available and permitted) electronically to the ECP and returning officer before sending the original documents.

The RTS software was installed in the smartphones of all presiding officers so that they could transmit Form 45 (containing tabulated results of the polling station) via their phone to the ECP on election day.

For polling officers without smartphones, the RTS software was downloaded in smartphones of other members of the election staff.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2018

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Talha Masood (Sydney)

Jul 26, 2018 08:36am

but again, what was the big deal???

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sanjay

Jul 26, 2018 09:28am

If the people of Pakistan accept the verdict, then things are closed.

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Faisal

Jul 26, 2018 05:11pm

There should be a better mechanism than taking screenshots, as data could be misinterpreted from these. B

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raza

Jul 26, 2018 06:02pm

Relax. It is the first time ever in the history of Pakistan that such a system has been implemented in order to make the elections transparent. I, being closer to that system, have known the issues of such bulk data suddenly being uploaded to their system of ECP which they out-sourced from NADRA. So, it caused the delay. I hope things will improve in the next elections. But such technical issues can't be declared a conspiracy or cheating.

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Sadeeq

Jul 26, 2018 06:10pm

I was presiding officer my self. When vote count completed and we finalized results on plan paper, all political agents noted that result along with them and ran away. I told them to wait for photo copy of official form 45, but no one waited. I gave form copy of form 45 to observers after when it prepared and did the rest as per law. There was no one outside poling station when we were leaving who had demanded and we had given them copy. I still have a copy of form 45 and if somebody need i can give them as many copies as they need. I dont know why have these parties made issue of this. If they find official result different than they have roughly noted then they should complain.

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Chinpakdost

Jul 26, 2018 09:32pm

Tragedy in the history of Pakistan. Nawaz is the true PM.

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Hussain

Jul 26, 2018 11:29pm

Can anybody write on poll count average time globally. Its unusual that 30 hours past the closure of polling, a large percentage of polling results are yet awaited? How regular is that?

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