Senator Raza Rabbani has said that the observation of faults with the Election Management System (EMS) “cast a serious question on the reliability and validity of the software”.

In a statement, he said the system had “started to show faults even before election day”. He noted that two returning officers had reported faults in the system.

“According to media reports, returning officer [of] NA- 197 has written that duties of polling staff were uploaded on the system but later couldn’t be found. He further said that the system was either a failure or was being controlled,” Rabbani said.

“These observations cast a serious question on the reliability and validity of the software. The history of 2018, should not repeat itself as the federation cannot afford further political instability,” he said.