Election Result Management System (ERMS)

Background

In General Elections 2013 a Result Management System (RMS) was developed by UNDP and implemented in Offices of the Returning Officers and ECP Secretariat. The RMS could not achieve its goals for a number of reasons as mentioned in the document titled “Election Result Management System, Was able it to achieve its goals?” Learning from the mistakes of the RMS 2013 a new Election Result Management System (ERMS) is proposed.

While designing the ERMS the following principles were considered:

• The System should be fairly simple for operation by the ROs and their staff,
• The System should use minimal IT resources,
• The System should require minimal or no training for operating,
• The System should be purely focused on Result Management and irrelevant components/functions should be strictly avoided.

The ERMS

Keeping in view the basic principles ERMS was designed with the features described below.

The main focus of this proposal is to involve the own staff of the ECP i.e. concerned DECs/AECs for transmitting the Election Result. The Returning Officer will prepare the result and the concerned DEC/AEC will transmit the result to the ECP in soft form.

The ROs will carry out their result compilation in the normal way they are used to and with which they are more comfortable. After preparation of the result on Form-XVI (Consolidated Statement of the Results of Count) and signing it the RO will hand over a copy of it to the concerned DEC/AEC.

The DEC/AEC will transmit the electronic copy of the result to the ECP.  This can be done by one of the following two methods:

• Option-1: Through mobile app
  • In this case a mobile app will be developed and all DECs/AECs will be provided with a mobile phone/tablet with the app installed in it.
  • The DEC/AEC will take photos of the result using the mobile app. When the DEC/AEC confirms that the photos taken are fairly clear to be read by anyone, then he/she will tap on the “Submit” button to send the result photos to the web server.
  • The web server will be accessible to both PEC office and ECP Secretariat.

• Option-2: Through scanning of the result
  • In this case a high speed scanner will be provided to all DECs/AECs. The scanner will be attached to the computer in the DEC office through which the result will be transmitted.
  • The DEC/AEC will bring copies of all results received from the ROs and scan it through high speed scanner.
  • The RMS software will be used to transmit the scanned copies of the result to the web server.
  • The web server will be accessible to both PEC office and ECP Secretariat.

IT staff in all provincial HQs of the ECP and ECP Secretariat will enter the data from the photos of Form-XVI in the database application.

Step-by-Step Process

The following steps are carried out in ERMS for results processing:

1. The RO will prepare the result (Form-XVI) in the normal way he/she is comfortable with. This may be manual hand-written or computer-based (Excel or Word etc).
2. When result is prepared on Form-XVI the RO will sign it.
3. Copy of the result will be handed over by the RO to the DEC/AEC concerned.
4. Result on the paper will be placed on some plan area where the app on mobile phone will be opened.  Or option-2 i.e. scanning of the result will be used.
5. DEC/AEC will be asked user name and password to allow only authorized access.
6. The DEC/AEC will take photos of all the pages of Form-XVI one by one and make sure that the photos taken are fair enough to be readable. If the photo is not readable the DEC/AEC will repeat the process until a clear photo is taken.
7. Once clear photos are acquired the RO will tap on the “Send” button.
8. When the “Send” button is taped the photos will be uploaded to the ECP website for general public. And at the same time it will be available to the IT staff in ECP Secretariat and Provincial HQs for data entry in the ERMS Database.
9. Data entry teams in ECP Secretariat and Provincial HQs will enter the Forms-XVI received from ROs via Internet in the form of photos.
10. When a data entry operator logs-in to enter result in the ERMS database, a Web-based application will pick a Form-XVI from the pool of available Form-XVI and display it on the screen to the DEO for data entry.
11. A single Form-XVI will be presented to two DEOs for data entry. The ERMS will automatically compare the two forms entered and if they are the same the database will be updated. If the if the two entries are not the same, these will be presented to a Supervisor along with original Form-XVI who will compare the data entered with the original Form-XVI and select the correct one and discard the other.
12. With this, the polling station wise result will be available both in database form and scanned form of original Form-XVII to all stakeholders and general public.