Postal Vote BD App Registration Suspended in Seven Countries over Address Issues

Registration through the Postal Vote BD app has been temporarily suspended in seven countries due to inadequate address information submitted by users. Authorities hope to resume the service by Friday morning so that expatriates can take advantage of the weekend.

At a briefing held on Thursday afternoon (27 November) at the Election Commission headquarters, Salim Ahmad Khan, Team Leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV–SDI) project, expressed this expectation.
“We are working to release the next update by tomorrow (Friday) morning so that expatriate voters can benefit from the holiday. We are trying to restore the app in these seven countries as soon as possible,” he said.

Earlier, from midnight on 26 November, the registration app was opened globally for Bangladeshis living abroad. However, because many users did not provide full and accurate address details, registration for expatriates residing in Bahrain, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates was temporarily halted. The Election Commission warned that without complete address information, it would not be possible to send postal ballot papers.

Salim Ahmad Khan added that the Postal Vote BD app was launched on 18 November for expatriate Bangladeshi voters and three categories of voters inside the country. Registration was gradually rolled out by region, and from early Thursday (27 November), voters could register from any country. Registration will continue until 18 December at 11:59 pm.

Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed expressed satisfaction with the overall progress.
“The expectations we had regarding the inclusion of expatriate Bangladeshi voters remain high. When a new system is rolled out, small problems are normal. Promotional activities are also ongoing,” he said.

He added, “We will move forward, problems may arise, and we will solve them—that is how we must progress. Already more than fifty thousand registrations have been completed. This is not just satisfactory—it's encouraging. We are monitoring the overall situation and addressing issues as they appear. We will continue to move ahead, InshaAllah.”

DBTech/DP/IK/OR