Dhaka: A total of 600,517 voters have registered through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app to participate in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad Election and the referendum.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the registration includes expatriate Bangladeshis from various countries, government employees involved in election duties, and those outside their voter constituencies. The Election Commission (EC) has started sending postal ballots to expatriate voters who registered through the app. In the past four days, postal ballots were dispatched to 124,300 expatriate voters in 16 countries.
Team Leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project, Salim Ahmad Khan, confirmed that postal ballots were sent on Monday, Sunday, Saturday, and Friday. The postal voting update on the EC website indicates that 600,517 voters have registered, comprising 560,992 male voters and 39,523 female voters.
Expatriate registrations were highest in Saudi Arabia with 141,610 voters, followed by Qatar, Oman, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Kuwait, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Italy, and Canada. Meanwhile, 112,345 Bangladeshi voters residing within the country have registered under the in-country postal voting category.
District-wise, Cumilla recorded the highest registration with 59,496 voters, followed by Dhaka, Chattogram, Noakhali, Sylhet, and Chandpur. By parliamentary constituency, Feni-3 had the highest registrations, followed by Chattogram-15, Noakhali-1, Cumilla-10, and Noakhali-3.
Salim Ahmad Khan stated that election symbols will be allocated to candidates on Wednesday, January 21. Following symbol allocation, voters will be notified via the app or EC website. To cast their votes, voters will log into the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app, view candidate lists, and mark their choice on the ballot paper.
Expatriate voters can register through the app until December 25, with no extensions to the deadline. On Monday, postal ballots were sent to voters in Australia, Malaysia, Oman, and Qatar. On Friday, ballots were sent to Australia, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia. Saturday’s distribution included the United States, China, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and South Korea. Sunday’s dispatches went to the UAE, the United States, Canada, Italy, Germany, and France.
Registration for election duty personnel is from December 18 to December 25, while voters under legal custody can register from December 21 to December 24. Voters must provide a correct address to receive postal ballots. The Chief Election Commissioner launched the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app on November 18 and announced the registration schedule for 148 countries.
Expatriate voters must use the mobile number from the country where they will vote to participate in postal voting.