The voting app ‘Smart Election Management BD’ was supposed to provide information like Polling Center, Candidate, Number of Voters as well as Results. The Commission announced to update the ‘results’ page of this election app after every two-hour interval on the option of how many votes have been cast. Users got updates of their own centers but it was not regular. Information was not available in all seats tab.
At the same time, the presiding officers of some centers said that there was no problem at 10 am in entering the mobile app launched by the Election Commission and giving updates. But at 12 noon, the app was no longer working. So, the information was being sent through SMS on the mobile. However, some presiding officers told that they were giving information through SMS from the beginning without using the app.
Those who downloaded and used the app for the first time on polling day, app users complained that it took hours to get the information after giving NID and date of birth. In many cases, the app did not even work, the sufferers said.
Although, the polling data was supposed to be updated on the app every two hours, but the data was not available in the morning of the polling. When entering the ‘Analyze Results’ option of the app, it said, ‘This feature is coming soon’.
Apart from the voters, election observers are also likely to be in trouble.
Election Commission spokesperson EC Secretary Md. Jahangir Alam said in a press conference at the Election Commission building at around 1 o’clock on Sunday that, there is a problem with the Election Commission’s app and says that Ukraine has created the problem. However, efforts have been made to resolve the issue throughout the night.
He said, ‘This app has been slowed down from another country including Ukraine and Germany. Our team has been working through the night, still doing it to keep it up and functioning. It’s running now, but a little slow.’
To the question of the journalists, the EC Secretary further said, ‘The news of making the app at a cost of Tk 21 crore is not correct. No app was developed at the cost of Tk. 21 crores.
The cost of a 6-year project is Tk 21 crore. This app is a part of that project. This is the first year running, so far we have spent around Tk 8 crore.’
Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal on Thursday said that, the app has been developed so that there is no lack of confidence in the elections. “Through this, the people will be able to know the correct information about the vote every two hours on the polling day,” he said, “The purpose of this is to know whether there is any kind of irregularity or manipulation in the polling station.”