With the adaptation of this software, the EC´s central office can keep eyes on what is happening around the polling centers across the country. [break]
According to Ram Govinda Aryal, section officer at the EC´s Information System Management Section, all 18,457 polling officers will be informing the EC central office through SMSs about their respective activities and of the polling centers.
“They [polling officers] will use different codes allocated for different activities to send SMSs to the EC,” he added.
According to EC officials privy to the development, the commission has allocated over a dozen codes for different activities such as start of voting, closing of voting, situation at polling centers and transportation of electoral materials, among other things.
“The polling officers will start to inform about poll-related activities to the EC once they move from the offices of chief returning officers and returning officers to polling centers,” said Aryal.
Asked about the timeframe for tracing such information, he stated that it will be conducted after polling officers begin to reach their respective polling centers and until they return with ballot boxes at the offices of the chief returning officers and returning officers after the conclusion of voting.
Aryal said that SMSs sent by the polling officers will be received directly by the software at the EC´s central office and the officials will learn about the activities at the polling stations.
According to officials, the software has been designed in such a way that when required information arrives at the EC´s central office green light starts blinking and if it does not arrive, red light will blink.
Asked about the implication of the adaptation of the software, Komal Dhamala, executive director of the Electoral Education and Information Center (EEIC) at the EC, said it will increase efficiency of the constitutional body.
“The EC can easily come to know about the status of all polling centers through the software and can take immediate action, if required,” added Dhamala.
The commission has already completed Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping of all 10,013 polling locations.
Through the GIS mapping, the EC has recorded information about the status of infrastructures, road accessibility, possibility of helicopters landing and geographical details about around the polling locations.
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