Election Commission resumes expatriate voter registration in seven countries

The Election Commission has resumed the registration of expatriate Bangladeshi voters in seven countries, including Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, after a temporary suspension earlier this week.

Registration restarted at 3:15pm on Saturday, said Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project.

According to him, the process was halted on Thursday for expatriates living in Bahrain, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates because many applicants had not provided complete addresses on the registration portal.

“To receive postal ballots, expatriates must provide accurate mailing addresses in their respective countries,” he said.

“If necessary, they may use the address of a friend or relative, or even that of a nearby well-known institution or building.”

The “Postal Vote BD” mobile app was launched on Nov 18 to facilitate registration for expatriate voters as well as three categories of voters inside Bangladesh.

Following the launch, region-wise global registration began sequentially, with the system made accessible from any country starting early Thursday.

The process will remain open until 11:59pm on Dec 18.

As of Sunday afternoon, around 94,000 expatriates had completed registration. Among them, 79,000 are men. The United States has recorded the highest number of registrants --17,500 – followed by South Korea, Canada, Australia, Singapore and Japan.

By district, Dhaka leads with 19,222 registered expatriate voters, followed by Cumilla (7,172), Sylhet (6,780), Noakhali (5,622) and Chattogram (5,353). Expatriates from all 64 districts have participated in the process to some extent.

Among constituencies, Sylhet-1 has the highest number of registrants at 2,470, followed by Dhaka-18 (1,931), Noakhali-1 (1,905), Sylhet-6 (1,755), Dhaka-10 (1,642) and Dhaka-13 (1,572).