EC Sends 7.28 Lakh Postal Ballots to Expatriate Voters

The Election Commission (EC) has begun sending postal ballots to expatriate Bangladeshis so they can participate in the upcoming 13th National Parliament election and referendum. So far, ballots have been dispatched to 728,023 registered voters residing in 104 countries.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project told that the remaining registered expatriate voters would receive their ballots shortly. He also emphasized that maintaining ballot secrecy is entirely the responsibility of the voter. Any breach of confidentiality could result in the voter’s National Identity Card (NID) being blocked.

According to EC officials, Saudi Arabia received the highest number of postal ballots, with 223,943 expatriate voters covered. This was followed by Malaysia, where 83,827 ballots were sent, and Qatar, which received 74,000 ballots.

EC records show that a total of 1,533,683 voters registered through the “Postal Vote BD” app to vote by mail in this election. Among them, 761,141 voters registered from within Bangladesh, while 772,542 registered from overseas.

Officials further confirmed that on Wednesday evening alone, postal ballots were dispatched to 50,790 expatriate voters across several countries. Of these, 17,000 ballots were sent to Saudi Arabia, 11,750 to Malaysia, and 10,200 to Oman.