Bangladesh’s Election Commission (EC) has dispatched postal ballots to more than 518,000 voters across the country who registered through the “Postal Vote BD” mobile application to take part in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad election and the referendum.
Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the OCV-SDI project overseeing expatriate voter registration, said on Saturday that ballot papers had been sent to all 518,603 registered domestic voters by 11:30 am.
According to the latest figures, 7,367 domestic voters have so far received their ballots. Of them, 4,902 have cast their votes, while 2,394 have already submitted their completed ballots to post offices or designated letter boxes.
Voting through the postal system is also progressing among expatriate Bangladeshis. EC data showed that by the same time on Saturday, ballot papers had reached 766,862 overseas voters registered through the app. Of those, 518,345 expatriates had received their ballots.
A total of 458,059 expatriate voters have cast their votes, while 410,928 completed ballots have been submitted to post offices or letter boxes abroad. Officials said that 144,860 postal ballots sent by expatriates have already arrived in Bangladesh.
Salim Ahmad Khan said that overall, 1,533,684 voters, both at home and abroad, registered through the “Postal Vote BD” app to participate in the upcoming parliamentary election and referendum.
The Election Commission says the postal voting initiative is aimed at increasing voter participation, particularly among expatriates and eligible voters unable to attend polling centres in person, as preparations continue for the national polls.
