National polls: 13 lakh registered for postal ballots, 5.81 lakh dispatched

A total of 13,07,095 voters have registered to cast their votes through postal ballots in the upcoming 13th Jatiya Sangsad Election and the Referendum, according to the latest data available on the Election Commission (EC) website as of 10am today. 

Expatriate Bangladeshis, election officials, staff engaged in polling duties, and government employees residing outside their constituencies are registering via the "Postal Vote BD" app.

Of the registered voters, 11,22,287 are men and 184,806 are women.

Among expatriates, the largest number of registrations came from Saudi Arabia (223,609), followed by Malaysia (76,660), Qatar (73,468), Oman (51,163), and Kuwait (33,607).

Under the "in-country postal vote" category, 584,347 voters have registered from within the country.

District-wise, Cumilla topped the list with 99,915 registered voters, followed by Dhaka with 93,465 and Chattogram with 83,759.

In terms of constituencies, Feni-3 ranked first with 15,164 registrations, followed by Chattogram-15 with 12,740 and Noakhali-1 with 12,612.

Meanwhile, for the 13th Jatiya Sangsad Election and the referendum, postal ballots have been sent to 581,689 expatriate voters across 75 countries worldwide over the last 14 days.

Team Leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project on expatriate voter registration Salim Ahmad Khan told BSS that the ballots were dispatched to expatriate voters in 75 countries by Saturday.

Among them, the highest numbers of 187,443 ballots were sent to expatriate voters in Saudi Arabia. In addition, 64,700 ballots were sent to Qatar and 66,577 ballots to Malaysia.

The Election Commission has extended the registration deadline until January 5 for expatriate voters, government employees, persons engaged in election duties and voters under legal custody to exercise their voting rights in the Parliamentary Election and the referendum through the app.

EC Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told journalists that the registration deadline through the app had earlier been set until December 31 for expatriates and three categories of in-country voters.

He said expatriates and domestic voters who could not register within the stipulated time repeatedly requested for an extension, and considering the matter, the commission decided to continue the registration process until 5 January.

Through the app, which was inaugurated on 18 November, expatriate Bangladeshis from 148 countries can register.

For registration, expatriate voters must use a mobile number of their respective country.