250,012 expats sign up for postal voting

So far, 250,012 expatriate Bangladeshis have registered through the Postal Vote BD app to vote in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad election and referendum.

The Election Commission (EC) published the updated figure on its website this morning.

According to the EC website, 228,781 male and 21,231 female expatriate voters have completed their registration.

Saudi Arabia has the most registrations (63,034), followed by the US (20,049), Qatar (16,326), the UAE (14,863), Malaysia (13,741), and Singapore (13,165).

The European Commission has extended the deadline for expatriate voters to correct incomplete or incorrect addresses in the app until December 9 at 9:00 a.m. (BST), according to a message issued on Sunday.

Saleem Ahmad Khan, Team Leader of the Out of Country Voting (OCV) System Development and Implementation (SDI) Project, confirmed the development with BSS.

Voters on election duty, government officials away from their home constituencies, and voters in legal custody will be able to register for postal voting through the app until December 25, the EC said in another statement.

The EC has urged expatriate voters to provide complete and accurate postal addresses when registering, stating that ballot papers cannot be delivered without proper address information.

EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed confirmed that registration for expatriate voters, which was originally set to end on December 18, has been extended until December 25.

For more information, visit the Bangladesh Election Commission's website at www.ecs.gov.bd.