ISLAMABAD: As voters turn to the polling stations to cast their votes, some of them are facing problems in retrieving their voter record using the Election Commission of Pakistan, ECP, SMS service.
ECP set up its SMS service in February 2012 to allow voters to know about their specific polling stations by sending their National Identity Card number at 8300 via text message.
However, it seems as if the service is overburdened on the election day as many people are trying to use this service to know more about their polling stations.
According to a local news website Samaa, the SMS service has been used 25 million times.
Some voters took to social media to express frustration over their inability to retrieve information about their polling station through the SMS service.
I sent a text on 8300 at 8:00am to find out the details abt my mother’s vote, its half three and I still havent got a reply from them – If ppl aren’t facilitated by this service today then its certainly of no use coz many just wont go out if they dont know where to vote. #GE2018
— Shiffa Z. Yousafzai (@Shiffa_ZY) July 25, 2018
Reports of the ECP 8300 SMS service not functioning on polling day in Pakistan #PakistanElection2018 https://t.co/4n8yLbZgQl
— Usama Khilji (@UsamaKhilji) July 25, 2018
Sir, ECP 8300 sms service is not working…it got stuck, I think…I have messaged numerous times today but all in vain…
— Muhammad Farooq (@Farooq3436) July 25, 2018
