United News of Bangladesh

More than 156,000 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 to be held in a single day in early February 2026. The Election Commission (EC) launched the ‘Postal Vote Bd’ app on November 18 last to bring expatriate voters living in 143 countries under the postal balloting system. As of 12:00 pm on Wednesday, a total of 156,712 expatriates—139,107 males and 17,605 females—had registered through the app. Among the registrants, the highest number came from Saudi Arabia (22,176), followed by the USA (18,713), Singapore (9,878), South Korea (9,421), the UK (8,973), Canada (8,915), Malaysia (8,013), Australia (7,646), Japan (6,855), the UAE (6,599), Italy (5,952), Qatar (5,478), Oman (4,838), South Africa (4,744) and Maldives (3,478). Read more: Expat registration for 7 countries likely to reopen on Friday: EC Among the registered expats, the highest 23,848 will vote in Dhaka district from abroad, while 14,820 in Cumilla, 11,701 in Chattogram, 9,929 in Sylhet, 9,718 in Noakhali,, 5,520 in Feni, 5,186 in Chandpur, 4,499 in Brahmanbaria, 4,030 in Moulvibazar and 3,966 in Lakshmipur district. In terms of constituencies, the highest 3,200 registered expats will vote in Sylhet-1, while 2,817 in Noakhali-1 constituency, 2,486 in Sylhet-6 constituency, 2,303 in Dhaka-18 constituency, 2,277 in Feni-3 constituency, 2,247 in Noakhali-3 constituency, 2,043 in Noakhali-5 constituency, 1,953 in Feni-2 constituency, 1,894 in Dhaka-10 constituency and 1,832 in Cumilla-6. The registration process for expatriates will continue till December 25 next. Besides, the app will remain open for the government officials, polling personnel, and prisoners under lawful custody for a 15-day period after the election schedule is announced. 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 theElection Commission is introducing a hybrid postal balloting system, enabling expatriates, government staff, polling personnel and inmates to exercise their franchise through a combination of digital registration and manual voting. The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the next general election and referendum in the second week of December. Read more: Bangladesh election: Voter registration in KSA, 6 other countries resumes

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.