Staff Reporter:
Thousands of postal ballot papers for Bangladesh’s 13th parliamentary election were found stored at a United States Postal Service (USPS) warehouse in New York after being marked as undeliverable, raising concerns over the overseas voting process.
According to officials, the ballots had been placed in storage after being deemed ineligible for delivery and were scheduled to be discarded as waste after a specified period.
The issue came to light when a Bangladeshi-American postal worker noticed the ballots and alerted a senior USPS official, highlighting their importance.
The matter was subsequently brought to the attention of the Bangladesh Consulate General in New York and the Embassy of Bangladesh in Washington, prompting immediate action from higher authorities.
An urgent Zoom meeting was convened involving officials from the USPS, the Bangladesh Election Commission, and the Bangladeshi diplomatic missions to determine how the ballots ended up in storage.
When contacted, Bangladesh Consul General in New York Mohammad Mozammel Haque said mail delivery in the United States is conducted based on ZIP codes. However, some of the ballot envelopes carried PO Box addresses, which prevented successful delivery.
“As a result, those ballots remained in the postal department’s storage,” he said. “Once the issue was identified, a Zoom meeting was held with officials from the Election Commission, the embassy, and the US Postal Service.”
He added that, based on recommendations from the Bangladeshi authorities, the USPS has assured that arrangements will be made to distribute the ballots properly. “We are hopeful that expatriate voters will receive their postal ballots in time,” the consul general said.
