Dhaka, Jan 31 (V7N) — Expatriate Bangladeshis who registered to vote in the 13th National Parliament Election and Referendum through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app have begun sending their ballots back to the country, with 139,763 postal ballots already received in Bangladesh so far.

The information was confirmed by Salim Ahmad Khan, Team Leader of the OCV-SDI Project on expatriate voter registration, on Friday night (January 30).

He said that a total of 766,862 ballot papers had been dispatched to expatriate voters’ addresses worldwide by 3:30 pm on Friday. Of these, 516,607 expatriate voters have received their ballot papers, while 454,587 voters have already exercised their voting rights.

According to the update, 466,564 expatriate voters have deposited their completed ballots at post offices or mailboxes in their respective countries after voting.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) said that postal ballots have also been distributed among voters residing within the country. Under the same system, ballots have been sent to 269,000 domestically registered voters (ICPV) through the Postal Vote BD app.

The EC noted that, besides expatriate voters, three categories of voters inside Bangladesh are eligible to vote by post:

  • officials engaged in election duties,

  • government employees working outside their own constituencies, and

  • voters in legal custody, including prisoners.

The postal voting system is being used for the first time on such a large scale in a national election, as Bangladesh prepares for the 13th National Parliament Election and Referendum scheduled for February 12.

END/SMA/AJ