Bangladesh has over 119 million voters: CEC

The Election Commission organises a procession to mark National Voter's Day

The number of voters in Bangladesh able to vote in the upcoming parliamentary election now stands at 119,151,440, according to the latest data.

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal released the final voter list on National Voter's Day on Thursday.

The Election Commission organised a procession in Agargaon to mark the day.

Bangladesh’s population increased to around 170 million in 2022, compared with 144 million in 2011, according to the latest government census.

The EC’s survey found there were approximately 60.45 million men, 58.87 million women and 837 hijras on the voter list, according to SM Asaduzzaman, a spokesman for the EC.

Information for this voter list was collected from May to November last year. The Election Commission issued a draft list on Jan 15. It was finalised on Thursday.

A total of 8.07 million people were added to the voter list, an increase of 5.18 percent. A total of 2.29 million were dropped from the list due to deaths, dual citizenship, and other factors.

In the 15 years since photo voter lists were first introduced, the total voter list has increased by nearly 35 million.

A total of 81 million voters were registered for the ninth national parliamentary polls, the first to use the photo voter list. The tenth general election had 91.1 million voters, the eleventh 104.1 million voters, and the twelfth 119 million.

In addition to collecting info on those who had become eligible to vote, the national survey also gathered data on people who would become eligible to cast their ballots in 2024 and 2025.