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DHAKA, Dec 25, 2025 (BSS) - Election Commission (EC) has issued guidelines for voters in prisons or legal custody in Bangladesh to vote in the upcoming 13th national elections and referendum. 

According to the Rule 10A of the Election Conduct Rules 2008 (Amended 2025), the voters detained in prisons or legal custody can exercise their voting rights through the ‘In-Country Postal Voting’ (ICPV) method. 

The guidelines, signed by Election Commission Deputy Secretary Mohammad Monir Hossain yesterday, were sent to the IG (Prison).

The EC guidelines state that the enrollment of voters detained in prisons or legal custody will be approved by the authorities concerned, a handout said today. 

A web link- https://prisoner.ocv.gov.bd/login will have to be used for the registration of such voters. The prison or legal custody authorities will nominate two representatives to complete the registration process of the detained voters, who will conduct the registration work. After registering the interested voters, the prison or legal custody authorities will send the printed list with seal and signature to the Election Commission. 

At the same time, the nominated representatives will upload the necessary information of the voters (.xls/.csv format) on the designated portal.
Registered voters in prison or legal custody will receive a postal ballot envelope through the concerned authority. This envelope received from the Election Commission will contain two separate ballot papers for the national elections and the referendum, voting instructions and a declaration, and a return envelope containing the address of the Returning Officer.

The guidelines further state that the prison or legal custody authorities will ensure a suitable environment for voting of the detainees. 

The postal ballot paper will not contain the name of any candidate; only the allocated symbol and blank spaces will be available next to the symbol. 

For this reason, the authorities will provide the final candidate list with the names and symbols of the candidates for their respective parliamentary constituencies to the voters.
The voters will vote by giving tick mark (? ) or crossing (x) in the empty box next to the printed symbol on the postal ballot papers for the parliamentary elections. 

Similarly, voters will vote by ticking (?) or crossing (x) in the empty box next to Yes/No on the postal ballot paper for the referendum. Before voting, the declaration form must be signed with the name and national identity card. If a voter is unable to sign, another voter will attest it.

After voting on the postal ballot paper, the voter will place the ballot papers in two small envelopes and close the envelope. After entering the envelope containing the ballot papers and the signed declaration form in the yellow envelope with the address of the Returning Officer, the envelope must be closed and submitted to the designated place or box of the concerned prison or legal custody authorities.
After the completion of the voting process, the concerned prison or legal custody authorities must keep all the envelopes of the postal ballots securely and shall send or hand over to the nearest post office as soon as possible. The concerned representative of the post office shall take steps to send the envelopes containing the postal ballots to the address of the concerned returning officer as soon as possible.

No postage will have to be paid for sending the envelopes. This will be borne by the government of Bangladesh, the handout said.