One box for every 400 postal ballots: EC circular says

Election Commission (EC) yesterday (24 January) issued a special circular outlining the procedures to be followed after the receipt of the postal ballots by the Returning Officer (RO).

The circular contains detailed guidelines on the preservation and counting of postal ballots of the forthcoming 13th national parliamentary election and the referendum.

The circular said the postal ballots must reach the concerned RO by 4:30 pm on the polling day (12 February) to be counted for. The ballots to be received after 4:30 pm will not be scanned or counted and would be kept separately as rejected ballots.

Once the RO logs in the software developed for voting through postal ballots, they will be able to view and know the overall picture of the number of voters registered for voting by postal ballot and the votes cast through postal ballots for the respective parliamentary constituency, the circular said. 

Based on the number of voters registered for postal voting, the ROs of each constituency will use one box for every 400 ballots (ballot envelopes). Each ballot box must have a sticker bearing the constituency number and name.

Sealing of ballot boxes:

Postal ballots will start arriving at the RO office from the day of allocation of symbols (21 January) onward. Accordingly, ballot boxes for preserving postal ballots must be kept ready on the day of symbol allocation or the following day. 

To ensure transparency in postal ballot-related activities, the RO will make a written request to the candidates or their election agents, specifying the date and time, to be present before sealing (locking) the ballot boxes. 

On the scheduled date, in the presence of all attendees, four seals/locks on each ballot box will be affixed. Before affixing the seals/locks, the numbers of each box and each seal/lock will be read aloud, and the attending candidates or election agents will be asked to record them. 

Once a ballot box is filled with postal ballots, its lid must be sealed with a fifth lock/seal and stored in a secure location.

Receipt and preservation of returned postal ballot envelopes received by post

The RO will assign one officer to receive and preserve the postal ballots received from the postal department. In addition, the RO will appoint the necessary number of supporting staff to assist the officer responsible for scanning and other related tasks. 

Upon receiving the postal ballot envelopes by post, the responsible officer will scan the QR code printed on the envelope. The envelopes will then be securely preserved in the designated ballot boxes based on the constituency. 

By scanning the QR codes, constituency-wise lists of distributed and received postal ballots will be generated from the software in Form-12. The responsible officer will sign and preserve the software-generated forms daily. 

If, during QR code scanning, the software displays a QR code as a duplicate, the RO will cancel the ballot. In such cases, the envelope must be preserved separately without opening it. The EC will provide the necessary scanning equipment for QR code scanning.

If the voter does not scan the QR code

According to the voting instructions sent to each voter, voters must log in the Postal Vote BD mobile app and scan the QR code on the envelope immediately after receiving the postal ballot envelope. 

Verification of the voter will be required during scanning, through which the system will identify that the voter has received the ballot paper. 

However, if a voter casts the vote and returns the envelope without scanning the QR code on the envelope, the ballot will not be identified in the system at the time of scanning and will therefore be considered invalid.

In such cases, the envelope must be preserved separately without opening it, and proper records must be maintained.

Deadline for receiving postal ballots

Postal ballots received by 4:30 pm on the polling day will be included in the count. Postal ballot envelopes received after that time must not be scanned or included in the counting process and must be preserved separately as rejected ballots.

Appointment of presiding officers and polling officers for counting

For counting postal ballots, the RO will appoint one Presiding Officer per constituency. Additionally, based on the number of ballots received, one Polling Officer will be appointed for every 100 postal ballots, and one Assistant Officer will be appointed to coordinate every 15 Polling Officers.

Persons to be allowed during counting

During the counting of postal votes, candidates, polling agents, journalists, and observers will be allowed in accordance with the same rules applicable to other polling centres.
 
The RO will inform the candidates and their polling agents in advance, through written communication, about when, where, and how the postal ballot counting for the respective constituency will be conducted. The RO will request the presence of the candidates or their polling agents during the counting process.

Postal ballot counting activities

For counting postal ballots, a constituency-wise counting room must be prepared at the office of the RO or at another convenient location. 

Immediately after 4:30 pm on polling day, the Presiding Officers will receive the ballot boxes filled with postal ballots of their respective constituencies from the RO.

During counting, the Presiding Officer responsible for the constituency will inform the candidates, polling officers, polling agents, journalists, and observers about the number and details of postal ballots received for that constituency. The Presiding Officer will then open all boxes of the postal ballots for that constituency. After opening the boxes, Polling Officers will first pour all returned envelopes into one place and then open them one by one.

Preparation, publication, and distribution of counting statements

After completing the counting of postal ballots, the Presiding Officer will record the results of the National Parliamentary Election in Form-16A and the results of the referendum in Form-4, as is done for general polling centers. 

Then the Presiding Officer will publish the results and provide their copies to the candidates, polling officers, polling agents, and journalists present during the counting.

RO will announce the results after consolidating the votes received from general polling centers and postal ballots. The final results will be published in Form-18 for the national parliamentary election and in Form-7 for the referendum.

Regarding expatriate voter registration, Salim Ahmad Khan, Team Leader of the 'OCV-SDI' project, told BSS that most postal ballots have already reached expatriate voters, and expatriates are casting their votes and submitting postal ballots at post offices. 

He informed that a total of 1,533,683 voters, including Bangladeshi expatriates, have registered their names to take part in the 13th National Parliamentary Election and the Referendum.