Over 4,00,000 expats’ postal ballots arrive in Bangladesh

Over 4,01,460 postal ballots sent by expatriate voters registered through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app for the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election and referendum have arrived in Bangladesh.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the OCV–SDI project, which oversees expatriate voter registration, informed journalists on Friday.

He stated that, as of Friday 9:30am, a total of 7,66,862 ballots had been dispatched to expatriate voters registered via the app. Of these, 5,26,498 voters have received their ballots, and 4,82,817 votes have already been cast.

Additionally, 4,49,006 expatriate voters have submitted their ballots to the respective country’s post office or postal authority, with 1,24,746 ballots received so far by returning officers.

Alongside expatriates, the Election Commission (EC) has started sending postal ballots to voters residing within Bangladesh under the ICPV category. So far, ballots have been dispatched to 694,146 registered domestic voters.

According to the EC’s latest data, as of Friday 9:30am, 3,24,202 voters have received their ballots. Among them, 2,59,394 have cast their votes, and 2,13,697 voters have submitted their ballots to post offices or ballot boxes. Returning officers have received 30,706 ballots so far.

For the 13th National Parliamentary Election and referendum, a total of 15,33,684 voters, both domestic and expatriate, have registered for postal voting through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app.

Voting will be held on February 12 from 7:30am to 4:30pm.