Bangladeshi Expats Cast 4.58 Lakh Postal Votes

Around 458,000 Bangladeshi expatriates have already cast their votes through postal ballots ahead of the national election and referendum scheduled for 12 February.

“As of 11:30am on Saturday (31 January), a total of 458,059 expatriate voters completed the voting process. Of them, 410,928 ballot papers have been dropped at post offices and post boxes in different countries,” said Brigadier General (retd) Saleem Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Election Commission’s Out-of-Country Voting–In-Country Postal Voting (OCV-ICPV) project.

He said a total of 766,862 postal ballots were sent worldwide under the out-of-country voting system. Of these, 518,345 ballots have already reached registered expatriate voters in various countries.

The Election Commission has so far received 144,860 completed ballots from expatriate voters, according to data available on Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, under the in-country postal voting system, the Commission has dispatched 518,603 ballots since distribution began earlier this week. So far, 7,367 ballots have been received by registered voters, with 4,902 voters casting their votes. Among them, 2,394 ballots have been submitted through post offices or post boxes.

For the first time, the Election Commission—led by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin—has introduced an IT-supported hybrid postal voting system, combining digital registration with manual balloting. The system covers expatriate Bangladeshis living in more than 120 countries.

The new postal voting arrangement is also being used for government employees working outside their constituencies, polling officials, and individuals in legal custody within Bangladesh.