Nearly 380,000 Postal Ballots from Expatriate Voters Reach Bangladesh

A total of 379,924 postal ballots cast by expatriate voters have arrived in Bangladesh ahead of the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election and referendum.

The information was confirmed on Thursday by Salim Ahmad Khan, Team Leader of the OCV-SDI Project on expatriate voter registration, while speaking to BSS.

He said that as of 9:30am on Thursday, a total of 766,862 ballots had been dispatched to expatriate voters registered through the “Postal Vote BD” app. Among them, 526,008 expatriates have received their ballots, and 480,416 voters have already cast their votes.

Additionally, 444,952 expatriate voters have submitted their completed ballots to the postal services or mail departments of their respective countries. Of these, 107,168 ballots have already been received by returning officers in Bangladesh.

Alongside overseas voters, the Election Commission (EC) has also begun sending postal ballots to voters residing within the country under the ICPV system. So far, ballots have been sent to 662,191 registered voters at domestic addresses.

According to the EC’s latest data, as of 9:30am on Thursday, 260,447 voters inside the country have received their ballots. Among them, 211,122 voters have cast their votes, and 168,519 voters have submitted their ballots to post offices or mailboxes. Returning officers have so far received 27,367 ballots from domestic voters.

Salim Ahmad Khan further stated that a total of 1,533,684 voters, both at home and abroad, have registered through the “Postal Vote BD” app to vote by postal ballot in the 13th National Parliamentary Election and referendum.