Expat registration for 7 countries likely to reopen on Friday: EC

The Election Commission (EC) plans to resume Out-of-Country voter registration tomorrow (28 November) for Bangladeshi expatriates in seven countries after suspending it due to incorrect or incomplete mailing addresses provided by many applicants.

The seven countries are Bahrain, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"We are working to reopen it by tomorrow morning. So that expatriate voters can take advantage of Friday, which is a holiday, InshaAllah. We are trying to re-launch the app for these seven countries as soon as possible," said Team leader of EC's Out of Country Voting (OCV) development and implementation (SDI) project Brig Gen (retd) Saleem Ahmad Khan at a press briefing in the city's Nirbachan Bhaban today (27 November).

He said the EC opened its mobile app, 'Postal Vote Bd' for the expatriates living in all the countries including these seven countries on Wednesday (12:00am after Sunday midnight) to register to vote in the upcoming national election.

Since the expatriate voters were inputting incorrect (mailing) addresses (to receive the postal ballots) in these countries, the commission decided to halt the process for these countries, he said.

"If there are incorrect addresses, the ballots can't be sent to the proper destinations. So, when we notice the issue, we've taken the decision to suspend the process temporarily for the seven countries," said Saleem Ahmad.

He said the commission talked to the Bangladeshi missions stationed in these countries to address the problem by carrying out campaigns to input the proper mailing addresses during the registration.

He said once addresses are confirmed, they will start sending the postal ballot packages to different destinations through the Bangladesh Post Office at the end of next week.

Speaking at the briefing, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said they still are optimistic over the registration of a good number of expatriate voters during the 13th parliamentary election and referendum on the July National Charter, which are expected to be held simultaneously in a single day in early February 2026.

"The expectations for the inclusion of expatriate Bangladeshi voters for OCV, which were high, are still high. One thing is that when the new system is rolled out, there will be minor problems. Campaigning is also going on regarding this," he said.

As of 8:00 pm on Thursday, a total of 58,563 expatriates-49,777 males and 8,786 females-had registered through the app.

Among the registrants, the highest number came from the USA (10,956) followed by South Korea (9,028), Japan (6,335), Canada (6,187), Australia (5,570), South Africa (4,330), Singapore (2,404), China (1,731), UK (1,387) and Saudi Arabia (1,058).

Among the registered expats, the highest 12,411 will vote in Dhaka district from abroad, while 4,340 in Cumilla, 3,751 in Noakhali, 3,645 in Chattogram and 3,219 in Sylhet.

In terms of constituencies, the highest 1,279 registered expats will vote in Noakhali-1, while 1,256 in Dhaka-18, 1,250 in Sylhet-1, 1,068 in Dhaka-10 and 1,054 in Dhaka-8 constituency.

On November 18, the EC launched the app for the registration of expatriate voters so that they can vote in the next general election.

Though the postal balloting system has been in the laws for a long time, it was never practiced in the previous elections.

This is the first time the Election Commission is introducing a hybrid postal balloting system, enabling expatriates, government staff, polling personnel, and inmates to exercise their franchise through a combination of digital registration and manual voting.

The EC aims to facilitate voting for approximately 5 million expatriate Bangladeshis living in 143 countries through this IT-supported postal voting mechanism.