Postal ballots sent to 376,309 expatriate voters worldwide

Bangla Press Desk:   The Election Commission (EC) has dispatched postal ballot papers to 376,309 Bangladeshi expatriate voters in different countries over the past 10 days, enabling them to participate in the 13th Jatiya Sangsad election and the referendum.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out of Country Voting System Development and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project for expatriate voter registration, confirmed the matter to BSS, saying the ballots were sent yesterday (Sunday) and during the preceding nine days to expatriate voters across the globe.

He said registration for in-country postal voting is also expected to increase, expressing hope that the number of registered voters-including government employees, officials engaged in election duties and voters in legal custody-may reach one million.

Khan added that the number of registered expatriate Bangladeshi voters is likely to exceed 600,000.

According to EC sources, postal ballots were sent yesterday to 37,612 expatriate voters in various countries.

On Saturday, 45,550 postal ballots were dispatched to Saudi Arabia alone.

Earlier, on Friday, postal ballots were sent to 57,360 expatriate voters worldwide, with the highest number-22,000-going to Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, the EC sent 10,999 postal ballots to the United Arab Emirates, 3,500 to the United Kingdom, 900 to Kuwait and 17,500 to Saudi Arabia.

In total, 376,309 postal ballots have been dispatched worldwide over the last 10 days, EC officials said.

Saudi Arabia received the highest number of postal ballots, with 122,393 expatriate Bangladeshi voters sent ballot papers.

BP/SP