Expatriates to get 4 weeks for voter registration

The Election Commission (EC) has developed a new mobile application titled 'Postal Vote BD' to facilitate expatriate Bangladeshis in registering for postal voting in the upcoming national election. 

The app is scheduled to be launched on 18 November, after which the registration process will remain open for four weeks. During this period, Bangladeshi citizens living abroad who wish to vote via postal ballot must complete their registration.

The information comes from the minutes of a meeting of the project 'Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV–SDI)', signed by Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah.

According to the meeting document, laws, rules, and related guidelines concerning the voting process for expatriate Bangladeshis, government officials posted inside the country, officials engaged in election duty, and voters held in legal custody will be formulated in such a way that the IT-supported postal voting method remains entirely free of legal complications.

The minutes further state that the 'Postal Vote BD' app must be promoted domestically and internationally until 31 January next year. The app's verification and testing must be completed, and a stable release published by 16 November. From that day, the EC will begin a live demonstration of the registration process. Meanwhile, tasks related to the security and personalisation of postal ballots are scheduled to begin on 23 November.

Postal ballots will be dispatched abroad between 1 December and 31 December. The return of completed postal ballots to Bangladesh is expected to begin around the second or third week of next year, with all ballots reaching the respective returning officers by the first week of February.

The document also notes that officials engaged in election duty may cast their votes through registration, provided they are included in a pre-prepared panel before the announcement of the election schedule. The database of polling personnel must be prepared and submitted to the OCV–SDI project by 15 November.

The registration target has been set at 5 million, and the election budget will be allocated accordingly. An estimated Tk 350 crore will be required for this initiative. As this budget is not available within the OCV–SDI project, the Election Management Wing–2 has been instructed to take immediate steps to ensure necessary funding. 

Initially, the process will begin with 1 million expatriate and domestic voters, with the number expanding based on registration progress.

In addition, 140 QR code readers will be procured for returning officers to scan the QR codes printed on postal ballots.