13 Lakh Registered for Postal Ballots, 5.81 Lakh Dispatched

A total of 1,307,095 voters have registered to vote via postal ballots in the upcoming 13th Jatiya Sangsad Election and the referendum, according to the latest data from the Election Commission (EC) as of 10:00 am today.

Voters registering through the "Postal Vote BD" app include expatriate Bangladeshis, government employees, election officials, and staff assigned to polling duties who live outside their constituencies. Of the registered voters, 1,122,287 are men and 184,806 are women.

Among expatriates, Saudi Arabia recorded the highest number of registrations with 223,609, followed by Malaysia (76,660), Qatar (73,468), Oman (51,163), and Kuwait (33,607). For in-country postal voting, 584,347 voters have registered from within Bangladesh.

District-wise, Cumilla leads with 99,915 registered voters, followed by Dhaka (93,465) and Chattogram (83,759). By constituency, Feni-3 ranks first with 15,164 registrations, followed by Chattogram-15 (12,740) and Noakhali-1 (12,612).

For the overseas voting process, postal ballots have already been sent to 581,689 expatriate voters in 75 countries over the last 14 days. Salim Ahmad Khan, Team Leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project, told BSS that Saudi Arabia received the highest number of ballots at 187,443, followed by Malaysia (66,577) and Qatar (64,700).

The Election Commission has extended the registration deadline until January 5 for expatriates, government employees, voters involved in election duties, and those in legal custody. EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said the original deadline was December 31, but repeated requests for an extension led to the decision to continue registration through January 5.

The app, launched on November 18, allows expatriate Bangladeshis from 148 countries to register using a mobile number from their respective country.