Postal ballots to be sent to expats soon after polls schedule: Election commission Sanaullah

Election commissioner Brig. Gen. (retd.) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah on Monday said the election commission (EC) will start sending the postal ballots to different foreign destinations a day after the announcement of the polls schedules.

The EC has taken the step so that expatriate voters can apply their voting rights in the upcoming 13th parliamentary election.

“We’ll launch the registration app for expatriate voters on November 18 and will start sending the postal ballots to different destinations a day after the announcement of the polls schedules,” he said while addressing a virtual discussion from Nirbachan Bhaban in the city.

The discussion on the Out-of-Country Voting (OCV) was participated by expatriate Bangladeshis and officials of Bangladeshi missions from different foreign countries.

Noting that the global rate for postal balloting is not satisfactory, the Election Commission said, “The registration rate for the postal balloting is only 2.7 per cent globally…..but we are optimistic that we’ll be able to do better surpassing any global standard (in case of the postal balloting rate).”

He said the Commission receives massive response and corporations from Bangladeshi missions in foreign lands in case of the introduction of the postal balloting for expatriates.

“For the first time, we are taking votes of expatriates through postal ballots without any prior trial. This is a big challenge,” said Sanaullah.

“The list of candidates will be finalised about three weeks before the election. After that, expatriate voters will have to cast their votes and drop them in the nearest post box. Postal ballots must be sent at least 17 days before the election; otherwise, the votes might reach after the polling and thus cannot be counted,” he said.

He said expatriate voters will have to cast their postal ballots around 18–20 days before the election. “Only those who are enlisted in the voter list will be able to vote in this election,” he added.

About the confidentiality of votes, the Election Commissioner said, “Maintaining secrecy and purity of the vote is every voter’s responsibility. We must ensure that our ballot secrecy is not divulged in any way — neither on social media nor elsewhere.”

He advised expatriate voters who do not have their national identity cards in hand to print out an online copy of their NID card to register for postal balloting in the upcoming election.

Sanaullah also admitted that receiving one-time passwords (OTP) through SMS during registration has been a global issue. “But we hope we’ll be able to resolve the problem finally in time,” he said.

Expatriates and officials at Bangladeshi missions raised different problems and suggestions over the OCV in the upcoming general election to be held in early February 2026.

EC senior secretary Akhtar Ahmed, director general of the EC’s NID registration wing ASM Humayun Kabir and other senior officials were present at the meeting.