Dhaka: Over 12 lakh voters have registered to cast their ballots through the postal voting system for the 13th Jatiya Sangsad election and referendum.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the latest data available on the Election Commission (EC) website until 5:30 pm on Thursday indicates that a total of 1,200,057 voters have completed registration through the Postal Vote BD app.
Of these registrants, 1,037,035 are male and 163,020 are female. The postal voting system includes expatriate Bangladeshis, election officials and employees, as well as government servants who are staying outside their constituencies. Among expatriate voters, Saudi Arabia leads with 205,613 registrations, followed by Qatar with 70,274, Malaysia with 68,803, Oman with 50,449, and the United Arab Emirates with 31,674 registrants.
Within Bangladesh, 521,981 voters have registered under the ‘in-country postal voting’ category. District-wise, Cumilla recorded the highest number of registrations with 92,894 voters, followed by Dhaka with 86,509 and Chattogram with 78,681. In terms of specific seats, Feni-3 ranks first with 14,526 registered voters, followed by Chattogram-15 with 11,964 and Noakhali-1 with 11,916.
Salim Ahmad Khan, Team Leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project, stated that they expect expatriate voter registration to exceed 700,000, while in-country postal voter registration may surpass 10 lakh. He mentioned that the allocation of electoral symbols is scheduled for January 21, expressing hope that postal ballots would be dispatched to expatriate voters before that date.
To enhance participation in the upcoming elections, the Election Commission has extended the registration deadline for postal voting through the Postal Vote BD app until January 5. EC Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhter Ahmed disclosed this information, noting that the initial deadline was December 31. However, requests from voters both at home and abroad led to the extension, allowing more time for registration.
The Postal Vote BD app, launched on November 18, allows expatriate Bangladeshis from 148 countries to register using a mobile number of the respective country.