Dhaka: The Election Commission (EC) has extended the registration time for voting in the 13th National Parliament Election and Referendum through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app until December 31. ‘The deadline for registration through our ‘Postal Vote BD’ app was fixed until December 25. Now it has been extended to December 31.’ EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters. He said that those who have not yet participated in the registration process can complete their registration by December 31.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, the EC has also requested Bangladesh Bank to keep scheduled banks open next Saturday. This measure aims to facilitate the submission of nomination papers and address any banking issues that candidates or their agents might encounter. Responding to a question about adhering to the election code of conduct, the EC Secretary emphasized the importance of compliance, stating, “We will all follow the code of conduct. That should be our objective.”
The ‘Postal Vote BD’ app is being utilized by expatriate Bangladeshis, election officials and employees, and government employees outside their usual areas to register for postal voting. As of 5:15 pm on Wednesday, the EC website reported that 681,060 voters have successfully registered.
In addition, the EC has commenced the distribution of postal ballots to expatriates. Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the ‘Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI)’ project, confirmed to BSS that ballots have been dispatched to 168,900 expatriate voters across various countries in the past five days.