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More than 51,700 Bangladeshi expatriates have registered to vote in the upcoming 13th national parliamentary election through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ mobile application, according to the Election Commission (EC).
Data from the EC’s online portal on Thursday morning showed that 51,722 expatriates had successfully completed registration via the app as of 10:00am. The EC will send ballot papers by post to the addresses provided by these overseas voters.
Registration for expatriates opened on 19 November and will continue until 18 December. Bangladeshis living in a wide range of countries — including South Korea, Japan, South Africa, China, Egypt, Mozambique, Libya, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Brazil, Uganda, several other African states, Australia, the United States and a number of Latin American countries — are currently eligible to sign up through the app.
Within Bangladesh, individuals eligible to cast postal ballots — including polling officials, government employees deployed on election duty, and incarcerated voters — will be able to register between 19 and 23 December.
According to the EC, ballot papers will be dispatched by post to all voters who register through the app. After marking their choice, voters must return the ballot in a designated return envelope, which will be sent back to the respective returning officer.
The EC is preparing to hold the 13th national parliamentary election in the first half of February and has set an ambitious target of engaging around 5 million expatriate Bangladeshis in the postal voting process.
