Over 420,000 expatriate postal ballots reach Bangladesh

The Election Commission sent postal ballots to more than 760,000 overseas voters ahead of the Feb 12 general election

More than 420,000 postal ballots cast by expatriate Bangladeshis have arrived in the country ahead of next week’s parliamentary election.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Election Commission’s OCV-SDI project, said 422,960 ballots had been received by 10:15am on Saturday.

Election Commission (EC) data shows that almost half a million expatriate voters have already cast their ballots, with most having returned them through postal services in their host countries.

The commission sent postal ballots to more than 760,000 overseas voters ahead of the Feb 12 general election and referendum, officials said. More than 520,000 expatriates had received their ballots as of Saturday morning.

The EC has urged voters to return their ballots as quickly as possible, noting that only ballots received by returning officers by 4:30pm on polling day will be counted.

In total, more than 1.5 million voters at home and abroad registered to vote by post in this election, more than half of them living overseas.

Postal voting has also been extended to election officials, government employees posted outside their constituencies, and voters in custody inside Bangladesh. Officials said more than 690,000 domestic voters had been issued postal ballots.

As of Saturday, more than 380,000 domestic voters had collected their ballots, with the majority already casting and returning them.