The Election Commission has dispatched postal ballots to more than 293,000 expatriate voters

The Election Commission (EC) has sent postal ballots to 293,147 expatriate voters in various countries over the past eight days, allowing them to take part in the 13th National Parliament election and the referendum.

Confirming the development, Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out of Country Voting System Development and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project, told BSS that the ballots were dispatched on Friday evening as well as during the preceding seven days to expatriate voters around the world.

He said registrations for in-country postal voting are expected to rise further. “We hope the number of registered in-country postal voters—including government employees, election duty personnel and voters in legal custody—may reach 10 lakh,” he added, noting that expatriate voter registration could exceed six lakh.

EC sources said that 57,360 postal ballots were sent to expatriate voters in different countries on Friday alone, with the highest number—22,000—dispatched to Saudi Arabia.

Earlier on Thursday, the EC sent 10,999 ballots to the United Arab Emirates, 3,500 to the United Kingdom, 900 to Kuwait and 17,500 to Saudi Arabia.

According to EC officials, Saudi Arabia has so far received the highest number of postal ballots, with 57,343 sent out of the total 293,147 dispatched worldwide.