More than 1mn postal ballots enter count

They are cast both at home and abroad, officials say

Around 1.07 million postal ballots are being counted after polling ended, election officials said.

On Thursday night, Salim Ahmad Khan, leader of the Election Commission’s (EC) Out of Country Voting (OCV) system project, said a total of 1,073,497 postal ballots, cast both at home and abroad, have been counted.

The EC said, while additional ballots have reached its offices, only those received within the stipulated timeframe are being counted.

Earlier, the commission said in a notice that 498,205 postal ballots had been received.

Data from the postal ballot app shows 544,380 expatriate voters cast their votes, of whom 538,370 returned their ballots through post offices or mailboxes in their countries of residence.

In the lead-up to the Feb 12 election, the commission dispatched postal ballots to 766,862 expatriates, of whom 554,648 confirmed receipt of their voting materials.

In total, more than 1.5 million voters registered to cast their votes by postal ballot from within the country and abroad this time, more than half of whom are expatriates.