Expatriate voters showed little interest in exercising their franchise in the recent elections as only four expatriates voted in Bogura-6 by-polls and Sherpur-3 election, with only four ballots received from abroad.

Only three expatriates voted in Bogura-6 by-election, while one expatriate in Sherpur-3 election, both held on April 9 -- two months after the 13th general election.

“The Bogura-6 by-polls returning officer received three ballots from the expatriates, while the Sherpur-3 election returning officer received one ballots from them,” said Brigadier General Saleem Ahmad Khan, team lead of EC’s Out of Country Voting (OCV) System Development and Implementation initiative on Sunday.

Besides, 1,065 domestic voters voted in Bogura-6, while 2,018 other domestic voters in Sherpur-3 under the In-Country Postal Voting (ICPV).

A total of 7,309 voters -- 5,645 in-country ones and 1,664 expatriates -- earlier registered to vote through postal ballots in these two constituencies.

Postal voting in these two constituencies began on March 30 and ended at 4.30pm on April 9.

The current Election Commission, headed by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin, introduced an IT-supported hybrid postal voting system -- in combination of online registration and manual postal ballot papers – in the 13th general election held on February 12 last.

A total of 15,28,131 voters --767,233 expatriates and 760,898 government officials, election officials, Ansar and VDP members and prisoners—registered to vote through the postal ballots under OCV and ICPV programmes in the 13th national election.

Of them, the returning officers finally received 11,65,593 returned postal ballots – 498,205 from abroad and 667,388 from in-country – in the election held in 299 out of 300 constituencies (except Sherpur-3) throughout the country.