More than 450,000 expatriate Bangladeshi voters from different countries across the world registered through a mobile app, ‘Postal Vote Bd’, in the last one month to vote in the upcoming national election and the referendum, scheduled to be held simultaneously on February 12, 2026.
The Election Commission (EC) on November 19 opened the ‘Postal Vote Bd’ app for the expatriates to complete the registration process by December 25 next.
Though the postal balloting system has been in the laws for a long time, it was never practiced in the previous elections.
This is the first time the Election Commission has introduced an effective IT-supported hybrid postal balloting system, enabling expatriates, government staff who are posted outside their respective constituencies, polling personnel, and the persons who will be in the legal custody to exercise their franchise through a combination of digital registration and manual voting.
Alongside the expatriates, more than 61,000 voters from inside Bangladesh have also registered to vote through the postal ballots in the 13th parliamentary election.
As of 6:30 pm on Friday, a total of 450,226 expatriates, including 28,765 females, registered through the app from 122 foreign countries throughout the world.
Among the registrants, the highest number came from the Saudi Arabia (127,844) followed by Qatar (47,263),Oman (34,439), Malaysia (33,379), UAE (26,123), USA (23,389), UK (17,835), Kuwait (17,813), Singapore (16,980), Italy (13,269), Canada (10,939),
South Korea (9,912), Australia (8,778), Bahrain (7,611), Japan (7,308), Maldives (6,294), South Africa (5,081) and Portugal (5,033).
The registration process for In-Country Postal Voting (ICPV) started after the recent announcement of the election schedule. As of Friday evening, 61,511 voters from inside Bangladesh registered to vote through the postal ballots.
With them, a total of 511,737 persons registered through the ‘Postal Vote Bd' app.
Among the registered ones, the highest 53,308 will vote in Cumilla district, while 45,532 in Dhaka district, 44,271 in Chattogram, 30,859 in Noakhali, 22,389 in Sylhet, 20,652 in Chandpur, 19,673 in Feni, 17,185 in Brahmanbaria, 16,300 in Lakshmipur and 12,258 in Cox’s Bazar.
In terms of parliamentary seats, the highest 8,269 registered ones will vote in Feni-3 constituency, while 7,670 in Chattogram-15 constituency, 7,411 in Noakhali-1 constituency, 7,157 in Cumilla-10 constituency, 6,869 in Noakhali-3 constituency.
‘In-Country Postal Vote’ registration to continue till Dec 25: EC
There are some 12.76 crore voters under 42,761 polling stations in the country's 300 constituencies.
Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin on December 11 last announced the schedule to arrange the 13th parliamentary election and the referendum on the July National Charter (Constitutional Reform) Implementation Order simultaneously on February 12 next.
According to the election schedule, the deadline for the submission of nomination paper is December 29, while the last date for the withdrawal of candidature is January 20. The election campaign will start on January 22 and continue till 48 hours before the balloting period (7:30am on February 10).