Over 400,000 expatriate Bangladeshis cast votes through postal ballots, says EC

More than half of registered expatriate voters have already returned postal ballots, the commission says

More than 400,000 expatriate Bangladeshis have cast their votes through postal ballots before the Feb 12 national election and referendum, according to the Election Commission (EC).

By 1:30pm on Monday, a total of 405,164 expatriates had exercised their franchise, the EC said in a statement.

Of them, 344,993 voters submitted their ballots to local post offices or mailboxes in their countries.

So far, 19,388 ballots have already reached Bangladesh, the commission added.

The EC has sent ballots to 683,122 expatriates.

By Monday afternoon, 478,326 expatriates had received their postal ballots.

The commission earlier urged expatriates voting by post to complete the process “as quickly as possible” and send their ballots to nearby post offices.

Only ballots that reach returning officers by 4:30pm on Feb 12 will be counted.

This year, 1.53 million voters at home and abroad registered for postal voting, more than half of them expatriates.

The parliamentary elections and referendum will be held on Feb 12, when returning officers will count postal ballots alongside other votes.

Besides expatriate Bangladeshis, three other categories of voters inside the country are also eligible to vote by postal ballot through the Postal Vote BD app.

They include election duty officials, government employees working outside their constituencies, and voters currently in legal custody.