Bangladesh’s Election Commission (EC) has urged voters to strictly safeguard the secrecy of postal ballots, warning that sharing any information, images or videos related to voting on social media is a punishable offence under the law.
In a message issued on Saturday, the EC said protecting the confidentiality of postal votes is both a legal right and a civic responsibility. It cautioned voters against disclosing ballot-related details on digital platforms, including Facebook and other social media sites.
“Protecting the secrecy of postal votes is both your right and responsibility,” the commission said in the notice.
The EC warned that any violation of the secrecy requirement could lead to legal consequences, including the blocking of a voter’s national identity card. “Refrain from making any such posts or shares; otherwise, your NID card may be blocked and other legal actions may be taken,” the statement added.
The directive was also conveyed by Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out-of-Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project, which oversees expatriate voter registration and participation.
The warning comes ahead of the 13th Jatiya Sangsad election and referendum, scheduled to be held on 12 February. To enable overseas Bangladeshis to take part in the vote, the Election Commission has sent postal ballots to 552,479 expatriate voters living in various countries around the world over the past two weeks.
Election officials said the measure aims to ensure the integrity of the voting process and prevent any breach of electoral laws as the polling date approaches.
