Overseas voter registration begins

Chief election commissioner (CEC) KM Nurul Huda on Tuesday inaugurated the expatriate voter registration at a function through video conferencing at the Nirbachan Bhaban in the city’s Agargaon area.

Expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry Imran Ahmad joined the function from Malaysia with Bangladesh Election Commission (EC) senior secretary Md Alamgir in the chair.

Addressing the inaugural function, the Nurul Huda said the Bangladeshi expatriates living in Malaysia will get the opportunity to be voters for the first time.

“About 9 million expatriate Bangladeshis are now staying across the world and most of them have no national identity (NID) cards. As a result they could not get registered as voters,” he said, adding that the eligible expatriates from now on will be able to get registered as voters through online web portal services.nidw.gov.bd.

The EC has taken initiative of providing NID to the expatriate Bangladeshis as they need the NID cards to open bank accounts, getting marriage, transferring land and making passport, the CEC said.

Election commissioners Mahbub Talukdar, Md Rafiqul Islam, Kabita Khanam and brigadier general (retd) Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury were present in the function while director general of the National Identity Registration Wing brigadier general Mohammad Saidul Islam presented a keynote on the overseas voter registration process.