Staff Reporter:
Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin yesterday said the voting system of expatriates will be finalized shortly, following consultations with technical experts.
The CEC made this remark while inaugurating a daylong workshop on determining voting systems for expatriate Bangladeshis at the Election Training Institute (ETI) in the capital’s Agargaon area.
Around 80 individuals, including experts and election officials, participated at the workshop, which aimed to gather insights from experts and representatives from Dhaka University (DU), BUET, MIST, and both government and non-government development partners, emphasizing on the “proxy vot-ing” system that postal or online voting.
The Election Commission (EC) hosted the workshop as part of an effort to introduce expatriate voting in some countries on a pilot basis, with initial consideration given to the “proxy voting” system.
The CEC mentioned that they’re giving top priority to ensuring the voting rights of expatriate Bangla-deshis, saying: “I believe that today’s workshop will help in determining a specific voting method.”
“Following the suggested approach, necessary steps will be taken to implement it, and a framework will be developed,” he added.
He continued, “The voting method will be piloted in certain countries before being expanded.”
The CEC also said decisions will be made considering the social, political, and educational realities of expatriates. “Any method we select for expatriate voting will first be tested on a small scale before being scaled up,” he added.
Nasir Uddin reaffirmed the EC’s commitment similar to the interim government to facilitating expatriate voting in the next election.
The CEC further explained, “Many expatriates have approached us, requesting the opportunity to vote for them. However, we’ve found that it is not straightforward.”
“After extensive review, we’re focusing on three methods: postal voting, which is currently in place, online voting, and proxy voting,” he said, mentioning Germany as an example in the discussion.
During his keynote address at the workshop, Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah said postal and online voting methods are unlikely to be effective here while proxy voting seems more ap-propriate.
