15.33 Lakh Voters Opt For Postal Ballots

A total of 1,533,682 voters have registered to vote via postal ballot in the upcoming 13th Jatiya Sangsad Election and Referendum through the “Postal Vote BD” app.

The Election Commission (EC) confirmed that the registration period, which began on November 18 last year, ended at midnight yesterday. According to EC data, all registrations were completed within the timeline announced by the commission. Of the registered voters, 1,281,434 are male and 252,246 are female.

Among Bangladeshi expatriates, the highest number of registrations came from Saudi Arabia with 239,186 voters, followed by Malaysia with 84,292, Qatar with 76,139, and Oman with 56,207. For the in-country postal vote, 761,140 voters registered from within Bangladesh.

District-wise, Cumilla led with 112,090 registered voters, followed by Dhaka with 108,755 and Chattogram with 95,297. In constituency-wise registrations, Feni-3 recorded the highest with 16,093 voters, followed by Chattogram-15 with 14,301.

EC officials said that postal ballots have been sent over the past 16 days to 635,769 expatriate voters in at least 81 countries, with Saudi Arabia receiving the highest number of ballots at 207,943.

Salim Ahmad Khan, Team Leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project, told state-run BSS that the registration period will not be extended. He added that the strong response from voters is encouraging, and the postal ballots are expected to reach recipients by January 10.

He emphasized that voters are responsible for maintaining ballot secrecy and warned that violating it could result in blocking of their national identity cards (NID). Around 10,000 voters had submitted incorrect addresses, and the EC has sent messages requesting corrections.

In addition to expatriate voters, election duty officials and government employees living outside their home constituencies have also registered through the app.

Launched on November 18, the app allowed Bangladeshi expatriates in 148 countries to register using mobile numbers from their host countries. Voters in legal custody are also eligible to register through this platform.