Voting opportunities for expatriates not very easy: CEC

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin said that many expatriates have asked to be given the opportunity to vote. But the issue of expatriate voting is not very easy.

The CEC said this while speaking as the chief guest at a workshop on determining the voting system for expatriate Bangladeshis at the Election Training Institute in Agargaon in the capital on Tuesday (April 8).

He said that many expatriates met us and asked to be given the opportunity to vote. However, we saw that the issue of giving expatriate voting opportunities is not very easy. After much review, we are working on three methods. Postal voting, which we have now. We are also working on online voting and proxy voting. Proxy voting is practiced here in the corporate sector.

The CEC said that like the interim government, we, the Election Commission, are also committed to making arrangements for expatriate Bangladeshis to vote in the next election. Whatever method we adopt regarding the voting of expatriates, we will have to pilot it first on a small scale. Then we will have to go on a large scale.

He further said, we will have to take a decision considering the social and political reality, the educational qualifications of the voters and the reality of the expatriates. Please suggest whether a pilot program can be done in one or several countries, whether from a workshop.