By Habibur Rahman

DHAKA, Dec 20, 2025 (BSS) - The Election Commission (EC) on Friday started sending postal ballots to expatriate voters who registered through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app to exercise their voting rights in the 13th national election and referendum.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out of Country Voting System Development and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project for expatriate voter registration, confirmed BSS that a total of 41,543 expatriate voters in 10 countries were sent postal ballots on Friday evening and Saturday.

He said the EC will allocate election symbols to candidates on January 21. 

After symbol allocation, voters will be informed through the app or the Election Commission’s website. To cast their votes, voters will have to log into the ‘Postal Vote BD’ mobile app, view the list of candidates for their respective constituencies, and mark a tick or cross in the blank space next to the symbol on the ballot paper as per instructions.

He added that if any expatriate voter casts a vote before symbol allocation (being already sure about a candidate), that vote will be invalidated. However, as per rules, expatriates are expected to vote after seeing the candidates following symbol allocation.

EC officials said that on Friday evening, postal ballots were sent to expatriate Bangladeshis living in Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and Malaysia. Among these, 892 ballots were sent to Australia, 573 to the UK and 6,246 to Malaysia.

On Saturday evening, postal ballots were sent to seven countries: 8,480 in the United States, 681 in China, 1,310 in Kuwait, 2,737 in Qatar, 7,343 in Saudi Arabia, 5,600 in Japan and 7,681 in South Korea.

Meanwhile, as of 7:30 pm on Saturday, a total of 540,610 voters have registered through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app.

Alongside expatriate Bangladeshis, government employees engaged in election duties and those staying outside their own voter areas are also registering through the app.

According to an EC circular, ballot papers will be sent in phases to all voters registered on the ‘Postal Vote BD’ mobile app. registered voters will receive the postal ballot package at their provided addresses within the stipulated time. After receiving the envelope, voters must log into the app and scan the QR code printed on the envelope, which will identify the ballot paper in the system.

Voters will receive an outgoing envelope (Form-9) from the EC containing a smaller envelope (Form-10 Ka) with the postal ballot paper (Form-7), a sheet with voting instructions on one side (Form-11) and a declaration form on the other side (Form-8), along with a return envelope (Form-10) printed with the address of the respective Returning Officer. Details of the postal package are included in Annexure-3.

The EC circular states; 

(a) All symbols will be printed on the ballot paper sent under the postal voting process, with a blank box next to each symbol. Before casting the vote, voters must read the instructions and properly fill in the ballot serial number, voter’s name and NID number on the declaration form and sign it. An illiterate or incapable voter may take assistance from another valid voter, who will complete and attest the relevant part of Form-8 and sign it. Without this declaration or attestation (where applicable), the ballot paper will not be considered valid.

(b) After symbol allocation, voters will be informed through the app or the EC website. To vote, they must log into the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app, view the list of candidates for their constituency, and mark a tick or cross in the blank space next to the printed symbol on the ballot paper (Form-7). The app will also contain video tutorials or digital content explaining the voting process.

(c) After marking the ballot paper, voters will place only the ballot paper in the small envelope (Form-10 Ka) and seal it. Then they will put this sealed envelope along with the signed declaration form into the return envelope (Form-10) addressed to the Returning Officer, seal it, and send it promptly by post. Both envelopes are self-adhesive; removing the tape will seal them. No postage will be required, as it will be paid by the Bangladesh government. Only postal ballots received before the start of counting will be included in the count.

(d) From the time the EC centrally sends the postal ballot to the voter until it is returned to the Returning Officer, the entire process can be tracked at different stages through the mobile app. Voters can monitor the status of their ballots using the ‘Postal Vote BD’ app.