EC receives 60% of expatriate postal ballots

Qatar expatriate Md Shahin Mridha cast his vote by postal ballot a week ago and sent it through the post office. On Sunday, he received a notification on the "Postal Vote BD" app confirming that his ballot had been received by the concerned returning officer.

Speaking to The Business Standard, Shahin said he had lived abroad for 27 years but had never been able to vote before. "This time, expatriates voted with enthusiasm. I was especially happy to see that my vote reached my constituency," he said.

With just a day left before Bangladesh's 13th national parliamentary election, the Election Commission (EC) has, for the first time, allowed expatriates to vote through postal ballots.

A total of 766,862 postal ballots were sent to overseas voters. As of yesterday morning, 460,480 ballots had reached Bangladesh, accounting for nearly 60% of expatriate postal votes.

The EC said all postal ballots received by returning officers by 4:30pm on 12 February, the polling day, will be accepted, while those arriving later will be treated as invalid. Counting of votes will begin after 4:30pm.

The commission also said expatriate voters registered on the "Postal Vote BD" app must cast their votes by 11:59pm today (Bangladesh time). Those who received ballots but have not scanned the QR code must complete the process within the same deadline.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out of Country Voting System Development and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project for expatriate voter registration, said by 10am yesterday a total of 766,862 postal ballots had been sent to expatriate voters registered through the "Postal Vote BD" app.

"Of them, 527,824 voters had received their ballots and 507,075 had completed voting," he said. 

A total of 491,682 expatriate voters have submitted their ballots to post offices or postal authorities in their respective countries, and of these, 355,431 ballots have already reached the concerned returning officers, he added.

At the same time, the EC has begun sending postal ballots to voters residing within the country under the ICPV system. So far, ballots have been dispatched to 760,898 domestically registered voters.

According to EC data, by 10am yesterday, 528,156 domestically registered voters had received their postal ballots. Of them, 473,144 voters had cast their votes and 429,882 had submitted their ballots to post offices or letter boxes. Returning officers have so far received 215,850 domestic postal ballots.

Overall, a total of 1,533,684 voters at home and abroad have registered on the "Postal Vote BD" app to vote by postal ballot in the election and referendum.

An EC official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told TBS that postal ballots would be one of the main reasons counting takes longer this time.

"After voting ends at centres at 4:30pm, preparations for counting will begin. Postal ballots will also be opened at the same time. Constituencies with higher numbers of postal ballots will take longer to declare results," the official said.

Feni-3 tops postal registrations; Bagerhat-3 lowest

According to EC data, postal ballot registrations were recorded in all 300 constituencies.

The highest number of registrations was in Feni-3, with 16,038 voters, including 12,536 expatriate postal voters. The lowest was in Bagerhat-3, with 1,544 registered postal voters.

EC data show that Chattogram-15 recorded 14,274 applications, including 12,445 expatriates.

This was followed by Cumilla-10, where 13,939 voters registered, including 11,898 expatriates; Noakhali-1 with 13,594 registrations, including 11,602 expatriates; Noakhali-3 with 12,783 registrations, including 10,764 expatriates; and Feni-2, where 12,747 voters registered, including 9,946 expatriates.

In Cumilla-11, a total of 12,544 voters registered, of whom 10,959 were expatriates. Sylhet-1 recorded 12,439 registrations, including 9,486 expatriates.

Dr Md Abdul Alim, a member of the former Electoral Reform Commission, told TBS that postal votes would not go to a single symbol or party.

"Just as voters inside the country vote for different symbols, expatriates are also voters of Bangladesh and will vote across parties. There is no reason to assume they will support one particular symbol," he said.

Nearly 2,000 candidates are contesting the parliamentary election this time. Of them, more than 250 are independent candidates, while the rest represent 51 political parties. The last day for withdrawal was 20 January, when 1,972 candidates remained in the race and were allotted symbols on 21 January.