Postal Polls Power Over 1.5 Million Voters, Including 0.75 Million Expatriates

For the first time, more than 1.5 million voters, including expatriates and several other categories, will be able to cast their votes through IT-supported postal ballots. Of them, nearly 750,000 are expatriate voters.

This information emerged after the registration deadline for the “Postal Vote BD” app ended on January 5 (Monday).

By 11:45 pm, a total of 1,530,483 voters had successfully registered, while 5,711 applications remained pending approval.

Among the registered voters, 1,278,767 are men and 251,714 are women. Registrations from within Bangladesh totaled 769,855.

The Election Commission (EC) has extended this facility to expatriates, government employees assigned to election duties, and prisoners. Of the 748,424 domestic registrants, 574,584 are government employees, 6,283 are inmates, 169,145 are election-duty personnel, and 10,000 belong to the Ansar and VDP forces.

Among expatriates, the highest number of registrations came from Saudi Arabia, with 236,401 voters. The lowest registrations—one voter each—were recorded from Zimbabwe, Colombia, Cameroon, and Niger. In total, expatriates from around 60 countries registered for postal voting.

According to the EC’s decision, although the national election and referendum will be held on February 12, registered postal voters will be able to cast their ballots after the finalization of candidates, at least 20 days earlier than in-person voters.

The Commission will send ballot papers along with return envelopes to voters’ registered addresses by post. The ballot paper will display only symbols, not candidate names, while a separate ballot will be provided for the referendum. After voting, voters must seal the ballot in the envelope and drop it at the nearest postbox or post office, from where it will be delivered to the respective constituency’s Returning Officer, who will count the votes on polling day. Ballots received after the stipulated deadline will be considered invalid.

The Election Commission has also urged voters to refrain from posting or sharing any content related to postal voting on social media. Sharing photos or videos of postal ballots after voting has been declared a punishable offense, which may result in the suspension of the voter’s National ID (NID).

This election will feature 118 symbols representing registered political parties and independent candidates, along with a ‘No’ option on the ballot paper.

DBTech/SCM/EK/OR