ISLAMABAD, Oct 19: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has expressed serious concern over the way the Computerised Electoral Rolls System (CERS) is being developed.

Coordinator Election Monitoring Cell of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Sardar Latif Khan Khosa wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner, “We are deeply concerned about the way CERS is being developed, date-entered, managed, monitored and implemented. Technically speaking, as we all know, no software is “guaranteed 100 per cent hack-proof’.

At any time during the development process or even after completion or implementation, software developers, managers and those who have access to the software or server from any of the entry points can embed a malicious code through which it will be possible to change the data later.

“Hacking can be done through any of the modes or multiple data entry points any time (24/7/365) when none of the political parties agents are present to change the electoral data, add fictitious names or delete actual names.

“We believe and urge that if the RFP and the project are not rectified and revised at this stage, it will lead to a flawed software development, mismanagement of CERS, incomplete data entry, erroneous rolls systems and possible hacking of rolls and election results.”

“There should be representation of the political parties on the Project Steering Committee (PSC) and the Technical Review Committee (TRC) of the ECP (sections 20.1 and 20.2) to ensure transparency of the project. The ECP must define the certification level of the CMM firm in the RFP to at least a level four to work as implementation partners. There should be an independent audit of the CERS (by an independent software audit firm) after completion and installation of CERS.