Postal Voter Registration via App to Continue for Four Weeks After the 18 November Launch
The “Postal Vote BD” app will be inaugurated on 18 November, with voter registration remaining open for four weeks following the launch. During this period, expatriate Bangladeshi voters wishing to cast their ballots through postal voting must complete their registration. Through this app, government officials engaged in election duties abroad and voters under lawful custody will be able to exercise their franchise in the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election using an IT-supported postal ballot system.
These details were disclosed in the proceedings of a meeting under the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project, signed by Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd.) Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah.
According to the meeting minutes, the relevant laws, rules, and circulars concerning the voting rights of expatriate Bangladeshis, government employees within the country, election duty officials, and voters under lawful custody will be formulated in such a way that the IT-supported postal voting mechanism remains fully free of legal complications.
The minutes further state that promotional activities for the “Postal Vote BD” app—both at home and abroad—must continue until 31 January of next year. The app’s verification, review, and testing are to be completed by 16 November, after which a stable release will be published. Additionally, from 16 November, the Election Commission will showcase the registration process live. Personalization activities related to postal ballots, including security measures, will begin on 23 November. Overseas dispatch of postal ballots will take place between 1 and 31 December, and ballots are expected to begin returning to Bangladesh around the second or third week of the new year. All postal ballots must reach the respective Returning Officers by the first week of February.
The document also notes that officials and employees designated for election duties who were included in the pre-schedule panel may cast their votes through registration before the announcement of the official schedule. The database of polling personnel must be prepared and submitted to the OCV-SDI project by 15 November.
Additionally, the meeting states that the election budget will allocate necessary funds based on a target of 5 million registrations, with an estimated requirement of Tk 350 crore. As this provision is not available under the OCV-SDI project, the Election Management Wing-2 will take immediate steps to secure the required allocation. Initially, the process will begin with an estimated 1 million expatriate and domestic voters. The scale of subsequent phases will be determined based on the progress of registrations. To support the scanning of postal ballot QR codes, 140 QR code readers will be procured for Returning Officers.
DBTech/Jani/Muim/OR
