The Election Commission (EC) has completed mailing postal ballots to 767,028 expatriate voters in 121 countries, allowing them to vote in the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election and referendum.
According to EC sources, the process of sending postal ballots to expatriate voters began in phases on December 20 and was completed in nearly three weeks, covering all registered overseas voters.
Shamim Sohani, Assistant Postmaster General of the Airport Sorting Office, told BSS that the Bangladesh Postal Department had completed the dispatch of all postal ballots received from the EC to overseas destinations yesterday.
"The ballots were sent via Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Emirates, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Saudia Airlines to ensure the quickest delivery," he said.
He stated that the ballots are expected to arrive at all destinations within a few days.
The Election Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology, Bangladesh Postal Department, Civil Aviation Authority, and the concerned airlines collaborated to carry out the large-scale "Out of Country Voting" (OCV) operation.
Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the 'OCV-SDI' project on expatriate voter registration, told BSS that ballots could not be sent to some registered expatriate voters because they provided incorrect addresses.
He also stated that 761,141 voters have registered for 'in-country postal voting' in Bangladesh. "Dispatching ballots to them will begin following the allocation of election symbols on January 21, and the entire process of sending and receiving ballots within the country may take up to seven days," he added.
Salim Ahmad Khan warned that voters are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of postal ballots, and that violating ballot secrecy may result in the voter's National Identity Card (NID) being blocked.
According to country-specific statistics, Saudi Arabia sent the most ballots (237,529) to expatriate voters. This was followed by Malaysia (84,174 voters), Qatar (75,869 voters), and Oman (56,063).
According to EC data, 1,533,683 voters registered for the 13th national parliament election and referendum using the 'Postal Vote BD' app, with 772,542 expatriate voters and 761,141 in-country voters.
