The Election Commission (EC) has launched a new mobile app designed to help expatriate Bangladeshis register for postal voting in the upcoming national election.
The move aims to ensure wider participation of overseas citizens in the 13th parliamentary election.
According to EC officials, expatriates wishing to cast their votes from abroad must complete their registration within this period to qualify for postal balloting.
To streamline the process, the EC is introducing a dedicated mobile app titled “Postal Vote BD”, which will go live on 18 November. All eligible expatriates will be required to register through the app to access the postal voting facility.
The personalisation of ballots, including printing and embedding security features, is set to commence on 23 November, according to documents prepared for a meeting of the Out of Country Voting System and Implementation (OCV–SDI) project. The agenda was approved and signed by Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah.
The initiative is part of a broader effort to expand voting accessibility for expatriates, government staff engaged in election duties, and law enforcement personnel through an IT-enabled postal system.
As outlined in the project papers, a nationwide and international awareness campaign promoting the “Postal Vote BD” app will continue until 31 January 2026.
Under the current schedule, postal ballots for overseas voters will be dispatched between 1 and 31 December, while the return of completed ballots from abroad is expected to begin by mid-January.
All postal ballots must reach the designated returning officers by the first week of February, ahead of the final count.
The EC has set an ambitious target of registering five million overseas voters for postal balloting. A budget of Tk350 crore has been earmarked for the initiative as part of the overall election expenditure, signaling one of the most extensive overseas voting arrangements undertaken by the commission to date.
