Popular social media app TikTok has pledged full cooperation with the Election Commission to help curb polls-related misinformation ahead of the 13th National Parliamentary Election.
The pledge came at a meeting between EC officials and TikTok representatives, held at the EC head office in Dhaka on Wednesday, said Election Commission Senior Secretary Akhter Hossain.
Head of Public Policy and Government Relations for South Asia at TikTok Ferdous Mottakin confirmed the matter, saying the platform will collaborate with the EC to prevent manipulation and misinformation. However, he said that TikTok will only begin identifying such content after the announcement of election schedules.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Akhter Hossain also said the commission has begun internal preparations to hold the referendum and the upcoming national elections on the same day, following the issuance of the ordinance on Tuesday.
Hossain said that both paperwork and field-level preparations had already started, assuring that the commission is well ahead in its planning.
He also addressed the registration process for immigrants as voters, saying that immigrants can register from any country starting midnight on 27 November.
“Immigrants will be able to register until 18 December. Any technical issues that arise during the registration process will be resolved immediately,” he added.
To ensure voting rights for expatriate Bangladeshis and election officials on duty, the EC has introduced a postal ballot system. Voters can register through the “Postal Vote BD” mobile app.
The Election Commission launched the app on 18 November to allow immigrants to register and exercise their voting rights via postal ballots.
Earlier, the EC had divided the world into eight regions, allowing a five-day registration window for each. These region-based restrictions and the fixed timeframe have now been removed.
Akhter Hossain also said the EC will consider increasing voting centres, polling stations, and manpower, as well as making procedural adjustments, based on observations from Saturday’s mock voting.
The EC will hold the mock voting for all voter categories on Saturday at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Government High School in Agargaon, Dhaka, from 8am to 12pm.
