More than 258,000 expatriate Bangladeshi voters from different countries across the world have so far registered through a mobile app, ‘Postal Vote Bd’, since November 19 last to vote in the upcoming national election and the referendum.

The Election Commission (EC) on November 19 opened the ‘Postal Vote Bd’ app initially for 53 countries and then for a total of 143 countries.

As of 7:50 pm on Monday, a total of 258,485 expatriates, including 236,998 males and 21,487 females, registered through the app.

Among the registrants, the highest number came from the Saudi Arabia (66,505) followed by USA (20,102), Qatar (17,124), UAE (15,774), Malaysia (14,457), Singapore (13,673), UK (12,202), Oman (9,706), South Korea (9,560), Canada (9,516), Italy (8,710), Australia (8,094), Japan (7,008), Kuwait (5,971) and South Africa (4,879).

Among the registered expats, the highest 30,866 will vote in Dhaka district from abroad, while 27,771 in Cumilla, 21,760 in Chattogram, 16,670 in Noakhali, 14,024 in Sylhet, 10,311 in Chandpur, 10,005 in Feni, 8,657 in Brahmanbaria, 8,064 in Lakshmipur and 6,415 in Moulvibazar.

In terms of constituencies, the highest 4,447 registered expats will vote in Noakhali-1, while 4,195 in Feni-3 constituency, 4,153 in Sylhet-1 constituency, 3,810 in Noakhali-3 constituency, 3,796 in Chattogram-15 constituency, 3,583 in Cumilla-10 constituency, 3,421 in Noakhali-5, 3,413 in Feni-2 constituency, 3,409 in Cumilla-11 constituency, 3,332 in Sylhet-6 constituency.

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 is introducing a hybrid postal balloting system, enabling expatriates, government staff, 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.

However, the ICPV (In-Country Postal Voting) registration process for the government staff on duty outside their voting places, polling personnel, and the persons under the legal custody (jails) will start after the announcement of election schedule and continue for 15 days.

The EC aims to facilitate voting for approximately 5 million expatriate Bangladeshis living in 143 countries through this IT-supported postal voting mechanism.

The Commission will announce the election schedule in the current week to arrange the 13th parliamentary election and the referendum on the July National Charter (Reform Charter) simultaneously in a single day in early February 2026.

There are some 12.76 crore voters under 42,761 polling stations in the country's 300 constituencies.