42,000 Bangladeshi Expats Apply for Voter Registration Abroad

Around 42,000 Bangladeshi expatriates from seven countries have applied for voter registration through Bangladeshi missions over the past 18 months, according to the Election Commission (EC).

As of now, around 20,000 applicants have had their biometrics collected, and 11,500 national identity (NID) cards have been printed. Of these, 9,500 cards have already been dispatched to the respective missions.

However, approximately 4,000 applications were rejected on various grounds, and the remaining applications are at different stages of processing.

The EC began offering expatriate voter registration and NID services in the UAE in July 2023, followed by Italy in February 2024, Kuwait and Qatar in May 2024, the UK in June 2024, and Saudi Arabia and Malaysia in July 2024. The service is currently available at 11 Bangladeshi missions across these seven countries. Plans are underway to expand the service to 40 countries, with Australia and Canada set to be included in April 2025.

In January 2025, the Electoral System Reform Commission recommended accelerating voter registration for expatriates using passport database information. This would enable them to vote in the next general election via postal balloting. The commission also proposed creating a taskforce for online voting alongside postal voting.

Md Abdul Momin Sarkar, Director of the EC's National Identity Registration Cell, shared that of the 42,000 applications received from the seven countries, 18,000 have been approved and 4,000 rejected. The rest are still being processed. He also explained that many expatriates who went abroad after becoming voters are already registered, contributing to the lower number of new applications.

The EC's slow processing has been attributed to the lack of dedicated staff at the missions, with embassy staff handling voter registration as additional duties.

The EC has received 34,040 applications from the seven countries, with the highest number of applications (11,233) coming from the UAE, followed by the UK (7,438), Italy (5,817), and other countries.

Statistics from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET) show that over 16 million Bangladeshi workers have gone abroad since 1976, with the largest number in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar. However, the exact number of Bangladeshi expatriates currently abroad remains unclear, with different estimates provided by BMET and the Foreign Ministry.