President Shahabuddin to vote by postal ballot again, this time via app

President Md Shahabuddin has decided to cast his vote by postal ballot in the upcoming parliamentary election, following the same approach he took in the 12th general election.

The decision was confirmed on Tuesday by Election Commission Secretary Akhtar Ahmed, who said the commission has already been in touch with the president’s office regarding the matter.

“The president has expressed his intention to vote by postal ballot. Necessary measures will be taken through registration on the app,” Akhtar said.

After completing the registration process, the postal ballot will be sent to the president by post, he added.

Shahabuddin had also voted by postal ballot in the previous parliamentary election, though the process at the time followed the traditional, paper-based system.

This time, however, the Election Commission has introduced an IT-supported postal voting method, allowing eligible voters to register online and cast their ballots remotely.

Explaining his decision not to travel to his constituency in Pabna during the last election, the president said security concerns played a key role.

“If I leave Bangabhaban and go there, then on the day of the election, my polling station and the entire Pabna district will have an impact due to my security,” he said.

“The common people may be delayed in going to the polling station, they may face some obstacles—maybe for a while. My conscious mind says that it would not be right for me to go to my area and vote and disturb the common voters.”

According to the Election Commission, more than 1.533 million voters at home and abroad have registered on the postal voting app so far, with expatriates accounting for more than half of the registrations.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the EC’s OCV-SDI project, said that as of 10:30am on Tuesday, 21,508 postal ballots had been returned. In addition, 425,788 expatriate voters have cast their votes.

Of them, 370,322 expatriates have already submitted their ballots to post offices or designated mailboxes in their respective countries.

Ahead of the Feb 12 election, the Election Commission sent postal ballots to a total of 766,862 expatriate voters.

By Tuesday morning, 493,920 of them had received their ballots.

Within the country, three categories of voters have been allowed to register through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app: officials engaged in election duties, government employees working outside their home constituencies, and voters in legal custody.

These groups are eligible to cast their votes through the postal ballot system under the commission’s new framework.