For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Bangladesh is entering the election season with a voter roll nearing the 130-million mark, after the Election Commission (EC) confirmed a final count of 127.69 million eligible citizens for next February’s general election.
The figures -- detailed at a Tuesday briefing by EC Secretary Akhtar Ahmed -- underscore both the scale of the electorate and the shifts in voter demographics over the past year, bdnews24.com reports.
Announcing the updated roll, Akhtar said the list now includes 64.81 million men and 62.87 million women, placing the number of female voters 1.93 million behind their male counterparts.
The roll also records 1,234 third-gender voters.
The latest figures cap a year of phased revisions under the commission led by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin.
The first update was finalised on Mar 2, forming the baseline for subsequent adjustments. A second phase followed, involving extensive door-to-door verification, and was completed in August.
The third and final phase closed with additions up to Oct 31, with the revised list formally approved on Tuesday.
Breaking down the internal updates, Akhtar presented the following:
● Number of voters on Mar 2, 2025: 12.37 million.
● Voters declared on Nov 1: 12.76 million, with 82,799 additional names added after scrutiny.
● Voter count on Nov 18: 12.76 million.
Ahmed reported that overall voter growth between March and November stood at 3.20 percent. Within that, male voter numbers rose by 2.29 percent, while female voter registrations grew at a significantly higher 4.16 percent.
The voter-listing practices began before the ninth parliamentary election, when the EC introduced photographs into the national voter database.
Since then, the electoral roll has undergone routine annual revisions to incorporate new voters, remove deceased ones, and align the database with demographic changes.