EC sends postal ballots to over 2.93 lakh expatriate voters

Bangla Press Desk:   The Election Commission (EC) has dispatched postal ballots to 293,147 expatriate voters in different countries over the last eight days to enable them to cast their votes in the 13th national election and referendum.

Confirming the matter, Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out of Country Voting System Development and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project for expatriate voter registration, told BSS that the ballots were sent on Friday evening and over the previous seven days to expatriate voters across the world.

He said the number of in-country postal voter registrations is expected to increase further.

"We hope the number of registered in-country postal voters, including government employees, election duty personnel and voters in legal custody, may reach 10 lakh," he added, noting that expatriate voter registration could exceed six lakh.

According to EC sources, postal ballots were sent to 57,360 expatriate voters in various countries on Friday alone, with the highest number-22,000-dispatched to Saudi Arabia.

Earlier on Thursday, 10,999 ballots were sent to the United Arab Emirates, 3,500 to the United Kingdom, 900 to Kuwait and 17,500 to Saudi Arabia.

EC officials said Saudi Arabia has received the highest number of postal ballots so far, with 57,343 ballots sent out of the total 293,147 dispatched worldwide.

BP/TD