BNP says ‘deliberate’ ordering of postal ballot symbols gives some parties unfair advantage

Nazrul Islam says the placement of party symbols was done so that BNP’s symbol is “not easily visible”

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has alleged that the postal ballot papers prepared for overseas voters deliberately placed certain party symbols first, giving some groups an unfair advantage.

BNP’s representative team raised the issue at an Election Commission meeting, claiming the arrangement was designed so that the party’s symbol would “not be easily visible”, said Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam after a meeting on Tuesday.

Nazrul said, “We have emphasised that millions of our brothers and sisters living abroad are registered to vote via postal ballot and will exercise their franchise in this election.

“The ballot papers sent to them… some may think it coincidental, but we believe it was very deliberately designed to place certain political parties’ names and symbols on the first lines. In contrast, the BNP’s name and symbol appear almost in the centre, which, when folded, makes it less visible.”

He said the party had drawn the chief election commissioner’s attention to the issue.

“We discussed this with the commission. Their initial response suggested they had not considered it in that way and were focused only on whether the arrangement was alphabetical. But we pointed out that five columns and fourteen lines were used, causing three specific parties to appear at the top line.

“Had there been four or six columns, or 12 or 16 lines instead of 14, this arrangement would not have been possible. We consider this intentional. Perhaps the commission did not notice, but those who actually designed it clearly did so with purpose.”

This year, for the first time, overseas voters were able to register via the mobile app Postal Vote BD, with more than 750,000 Bangladeshis responding.

With over 12.5 million Bangladeshis living abroad, this represents a registered voter rate of more than 6 percent.

The app also allows postal ballot registration for three groups within Bangladesh: election officials, government employees working outside their constituencies, and voters under legal detention.

Registered overseas voters have already begun receiving their ballots and must return them promptly after voting.

Nazrul added that the BNP requested the Election Commission, if possible, to correct and resend the ballots abroad.

“We made it clear to the commission that such manipulation must not occur for domestic postal ballots. It must be rectified,” he said.

He also alleged that a “special group” abroad was controlling some of the postal ballots.

“We told them that the distribution process abroad is flawed. For example, in Bahrain, leaders of a particular political party were handling multiple ballots. Video evidence of this has gone viral on social media.

“The commission acknowledged awareness of this and has contacted the Bahraini authorities. They will investigate further and take action accordingly,” he said.

Nazrul emphasised that any attempt to manipulate the election should face legal action.

He also stressed that citizens who renounce dual nationality should retain voting rights, and overseas residence, as previous cases should not exclude them from participating.

He added that BNP supports reform, and will vote in favour of it, while cautioning that breaches of electoral conduct by any party must be addressed.