The Election Commission plans to resume Out-of-Country voter registration on Friday (November 28) for Bangladeshi expatriates in seven countries after suspending it due to incorrect or incomplete mailing addresses provided by many applicants.
The seven countries are Bahrain, Kuwait, Malaysia, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"We are working to reopen it by tomorrow (Friday) morning. So that expatriate voters can take advantage of Friday, which is a holiday, InshaAllah. We are trying to re-launch the app for these seven countries as soon as possible," said Team leader of EC's Out of Country Voting (OCV) development and implementation (SDI) project Brig Gen (retd) Saleem Ahmad Khan at a press briefing in the city’s Nirbachan Bhaban on Thursday (November 27).
Read more: Over 23,000 Bangladeshi expats registered to vote in 2026 election
He said the EC opened its mobile app, 'Postal Vote Bd' for the expatriates living in all the countries including these seven countries on Wednesday (12:00am after Sunday midnight) to register to vote in the upcoming national election.
Since the expatriate voters were inputting incorrect (mailing) addresses (to receive the postal ballots) in these countries, the commission decided to halt the process for these countries, he said.
“If there are incorrect addresses, the ballots can’t be sent to the proper destinations. So, when we notice the issue, we’ve taken the decision to suspend the process temporarily for the seven countries,” said Saleem Ahmad.
He said the commission talked to the Bangladeshi missions stationed in these countries to address the problem by carrying out campaigns to input the proper mailing addresses during the registration.
He said once addresses are confirmed, they will start sending the postal ballot packages to different destinations through the Bangladesh Post Office at the end of next week.
Speaking at the briefing, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said they still are optimistic over the registration of a good number of expatriate voters during the 13th parliamentary election and referendum on the July National Charter, which are expected to be held simultaneously in a single day in early February 2026.
Read more: 'Postal Vote BD’ App launched to include expats in 2026 election
"The expectations for the inclusion of expatriate Bangladeshi voters for OCV, which were high, are still high. One thing is that when the new system is rolled out, there will be minor problems. Campaigning is also going on regarding this," he said.
As of 8:00 pm on Thursday, a total of 58,563 expatriates-49,777 males and 8,786 females-had registered through the app.
