EC adopts secure VPN network for February 12 election results

The Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) has announced that results from the upcoming 13^th national parliamentary election will be transmitted via a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) to safeguard data integrity.

In a formal directive issued on Monday, the commission confirmed that this move is designed to ensure uninterrupted communication and prevent external interference during the high-stakes polls scheduled for 12 February. The instruction, signed by Senior Assistant Secretary Md Shahidul Islam, mandates that all Returning Officers and Assistant Returning Officers use approved encrypted channels to relay vote tallies from their respective local offices directly to the central Election building in Dhaka.

To facilitate this digital handover, the authorities have authorised several major service providers, including BTCL, Teletalk, and Grameenphone, alongside the global cybersecurity platform Cisco AnyConnect. Technical teams and regional operators will be stationed at the national headquarters to provide real-time assistance, ensuring that the critical window following the close of polls remains technically stable.

The commission has provided specific technical requirements for regional offices, including a minimum internet speed of 10 Mbps for those utilising software-based encryption. In urban centres where offices are located in close proximity, the EC has recommended the use of physical fibre-optic or Ethernet connections under the state-owned BTCL network to further reduce the risk of signal dropouts.

As an additional security layer, the EC has mandated MAC address filtering, meaning only pre-registered devices will be permitted to access the secure transmission network. All temporary VPN connections must be decommissioned within 48 hours of the election’s conclusion to prevent any long-term vulnerabilities in the state’s digital infrastructure.

This digital security push arrives as nearly 128 million registered voters prepare for a historic dual mandate involving both the general election and a referendum on constitutional reforms. The commission has requested all telecommunications and internet service providers to ensure maximum uptime throughout the election period, stressing that the stability of the national grid and internet services is a matter of paramount national importance.