Staff Reporter:
About 123,089 Bangladeshi expatriate voters have, so far, registered using an app to vote through postal ballots in the upcoming 13th national election and referendum.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) has extended the registration period for the expatriate voters through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app until December 25.
Earlier, the registration process for expatriate voters using the ‘Postal Vote BD App’ remained open until 11:59 pm on December 18.
EC Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed revealed this information yesterday.
“Regarding out-of-country voting, we had said the deadline was till December 18. This deadline has been extended till December 25 midnight. According to Bangladesh Standard Time, we have extended it by another week; until December 25,” he said.
The EC Secretary said many expatriates have said that it would be better if the time is extended. “We also observed that there is an opportunity to extend the time. The good news is that the time can be ex-tended.”
He said now anyone from anywhere in the world can register to vote by downloading the app.
Akhtar Ahmed said the EC will start the registration process for ICPV In-Country Postal Voting in a 15- day period after the announcement of the election schedule.
According to the postal voting update information published on the EC website, a total of 1,23,089 ex-patriate voters have registered through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app until 5 pm yesterday.
Among them, 1,06,906 are male voters and 16,183 are female voters.
Among the country-wise registrations, 18,114 voters were registered from the United States while 10,831 from Saudi Arabia, 9,389 from South Korea, 8,774 from Singapore, 8,609 from Canada, 7,480 from Australia, 7,016 from the United Kingdom (UK), 6,798 from Japan, 5,224 from Italy and 4,725 from South
Africa.
The EC Senior Secretary said expatriates can register from anywhere in the world at any time until De-cember 25.
“The voting system for Bangladeshis living abroad is an important step in the country’s history. In addi-tion, the In-Country Postal Voting (ICPV) process has also been introduced for government officials participating in the election process, voters in legal custody and government employees residing outside their own constituencies. About one million voters will benefit from this,” he said.
On November 18, the Chief Election Commissioner launched the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app.
To vote through postal ballots, expatriate voters must use the mobile number of the country from which they will vote. To register, first download and install the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app from the Google Play Store or App Store.
Users can view the necessary documents and instructions for registration on the app by selecting Bangla or English language.
Providing the correct address is essential to ensure receipt of the ballot abroad.
