The Election Commission (EC) has launched an IT-supported hybrid postal ballot system to enable both out-of-country and in-country postal voting ahead of the national election and referendum scheduled for early February 2026.
Officials have warned that postal ballots could be rejected for six specific reasons, underscoring the importance of following the voting guidelines carefully.
The EC on November 19 opened the ‘Postal Vote Bd’ app initially for 53 countries and then for a total of 143 countries. More than 280,000 expatriates so far registered through the app till Tuesday evening.
Besides, 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.
But a postal ballot paper will not be counted on six reasons in line with the Article 27 of the Representation of the People Order (Second Amendment) Ordinance 2025, which was promulgated on Monday, incorporating several provisions related to the postal balloting system.
“A postal ballot paper issued under this Article shall be excluded from the count in favour of any contesting candidate if: (a) no tick or cross mark is placed against any symbol; or (b) a tick or cross mark is placed against more than one symbol; or (c) a tick or cross mark is so placed that it cannot reasonably be ascertained for which candidate the vote has been cast; or (d) the postal ballot is not received by the Returning Officer before the count under Article 37A; or (e) any change in the list of candidates of a particular constituency or constituencies is made by any court at relevant time; or (f) no declaration is made by the voter,” said the article of revised RPO.
According to the amended RPO, the office of the Returning Officer shall, for each constituency, be deemed to be a polling station solely for the purpose of counting all postal ballots duly received by the Returning Officer up to the official closing time of the poll.
It also states that the Returning Officer shall appoint a Presiding Officer and such number of Polling Officers as he may deem necessary to conduct the counting of postal ballots. And the Presiding Officer shall, in the presence of the contesting candidates or their election agents or polling agents, open the postal ballot envelopes and count the votes cast in favour of each contesting candidate in such manner and in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed by the Commission.
Upon completion of the counting of all postal ballots, the Presiding Officer shall prepare a duly authenticated statement of the postal ballot count in the prescribed form and shall submit the same to the Returning Officer without delay, said the Article 37A of the RPO.
The Returning Officer shall incorporate the postal ballot count, as submitted by the Presiding Officer, into the consolidated result of the constituency, as per the article.
As of 7:15pm on Tuesday, a total of 280,267 expatriates registered from different countries to vote in the 2026 election.
Among the registrants, the highest number came from the Saudi Arabia (76,758) followed by USA (20,360), Qatar (20,185), UAE (17,486), Malaysia (15,877), Singapore (14,383), UK (12,871), Oman (10,168), Canada (9,659) and South Korea (9,580).
Among the registered expats, the highest 32,294 will vote in Dhaka district from abroad, while 30,664 in Cumilla, 23,939 in Chattogram, 18,079 in Noakhali and 14,982 in Sylhet.
In terms of constituencies, the highest 4,763 registered expats will vote in Noakhali-1, while 4,599 in Feni-3 constituency, 4,357 in Sylhet-1 constituency, 4,323 in Chattogram-15 constituency and 4,128 in Noakhali-3 constituency.
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.