The Election Commission has dispatched 728,000 postal ballots to expatriate voters

The Election Commission (EC) has sent postal ballots to 728,023 expatriate voters across 104 countries, enabling them to participate in the upcoming 13th Jatiya Sangsad election and referendum.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project on expatriate voter registration, told BSS that ballots for the remaining registered expatriate voters would be dispatched as soon as possible.

He noted that maintaining ballot secrecy is the responsibility of individual voters, warning that any breach of secrecy could result in their National Identity Card (NID) being blocked.

According to EC officials, the largest number of ballots was sent to Saudi Arabia, where 223,943 expatriates received ballots. Malaysia followed with 83,827 ballots, while 74,000 were sent to voters in Qatar.

EC data show that a total of 1,533,683 voters have registered through the “Postal Vote BD” app to cast ballots by post in this election. Of them, 761,141 registered from within Bangladesh, while 772,542 registered from abroad.

EC sources added that on Wednesday evening alone, postal ballots were dispatched to 50,790 expatriate voters in various countries, including 17,000 to Saudi Arabia, 11,750 to Malaysia and 10,200 to Oman.