More than half a million expatriate Bangladeshis have cast their votes by postal ballot in the ongoing election and referendum, though fewer ballots have so far reached the Election Commission.
On Tuesday, Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Election Commission’s expatriate postal ballot voting project, said that 471,957 postal ballots had reached the Election Commission by 10:00am.
According to data from the postal ballot app, a total of 512,916 expatriates have cast their votes, while 502,487 voters have already submitted their completed ballots to post offices or designated mailboxes in their respective countries.
Ahead of the February 12 national election, the Election Commission dispatched postal ballots to 766,862 expatriate voters worldwide.
Of them, 528,233 voters had received their ballot papers as of Tuesday morning, the commission said. The remaining ballots are expected to reach voters and return to the commission in the coming days.
Election officials expressed optimism that a significant number of outstanding ballots would arrive before the final counting deadline.
