EC gets approval to begin voter registration in US, 4 other countries

The Election Commission (EC) of Bangladesh has received approval to initiate voter registration and National Identity Card (NID) issuance in five new countries — the United States, Maldives, Jordan, South Africa, and Oman. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued the official approval letter on Wednesday, according to a report by BSS.

The approval was confirmed in a letter signed by Shakera Ahmed, Senior Assistant Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was sent to the Election Commission on July 9.

The letter stated “Based on the referenced correspondence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs grants approval to launch voter registration and NID issuance activities in the United States (Los Angeles), Maldives, Jordan, South Africa, and Oman. You are hereby requested to take necessary measures accordingly.”

When contacted, A.S.M. Humayun Kabir, Director General of the EC’s National Identity Registration Division, said, “We have already written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding our readiness to begin voter registration and NID services in eight countries. Work on this initiative is already underway.”

According to EC officials, expatriate voter registration and NID issuance activities are currently ongoing in nine countries: the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia, Australia, and Canada. As of now, a total of 47,032 expatriates from these countries have applied to become voters. Among them, biometric data has been collected from 29,563 applicants through Bangladeshi missions, and 20,451 have been approved as voters. A total of 3,677 applications have been rejected.

Earlier, on July 2, Md. Abdul Momin, Director (Registration and Expatriates) of the National Identity Registration Division, signed a letter to the Foreign Secretary titled “Approval to Begin Voter Registration and NID Issuance for Bangladeshi Citizens Residing Abroad.” The letter stated that the EC Secretariat has a plan to offer NID services to Bangladeshi citizens in 40 countries.

Of those, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already granted approval for voter registration in nine countries, and as of Wednesday, permission was granted for five more: the United States, Oman, Jordan, South Africa, and Maldives. This leaves 31 countries where approval is still pending, including Bahrain, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Egypt, Brunei, Mauritius, Iraq, Greece, Spain, Germany, Japan, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Brazil, China, Indonesia, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey, and Cyprus.

The letter mentioned that the EC Secretariat is fully prepared to launch voter registration in these remaining countries. Letters have already been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting priority approval for these nations. The letter also noted that the ministry approved voter registration and NID activities in Japan on May 25, and preparations have been completed to launch operations there by July 15.

In light of this, the EC has urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide similar approvals for the United States, Maldives, Turkey, Jordan, South Africa, Oman, Egypt, and France so that the programs can be launched without delay.