Ahead of the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election, the Election Commission (EC) has launched the “Postal Vote BD” app to facilitate voting for expatriates. In just seven days, over 32,000 expat voters have registered through the app. The EC will send ballot papers to the registered voters’ addresses within the specified period.
On Tuesday evening, EC’s website (https://portal.ocv.gov.bd/report/by-country) reported that as of 8pm, 32,793 expat voters had registered. Among them, 28,499 were men and 4,294 were women.
Registration for Bangladeshis living in East Asia, South America, and Africa began on Wednesday and will continue until Friday. Registration for those in North America, Australia, and New Zealand started on November 24 and will continue until the same deadline.
Countries included in the registration drive are: South Korea, Japan, South Africa, China, Egypt, Mozambique, Libya, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Brazil, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Liberia, Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, Algeria, Angola, Tanzania, Somalia, Ghana, Guinea, Morocco, South Sudan, Chile, Sierra Leone, Ecuador, Taiwan, Argentina, Australia, Central African Republic, Gambia, Peru, Zimbabwe, and the United States.
Postal Voting Schedule, Saudi Arabia: December 4-8, South Asia & Southeast Asia: December 9–13, Other Middle East countries (excluding Saudi Arabia): December 14–18.
Voters residing in Bangladesh (including election officials, government employees, detainees, and overseas voters), December 19–23.
Ballot papers will be sent to registered voters via postal mail. Voters will cast their votes and return the ballots to the returning officer.
App Security
Regarding the security of voter data on the Postal Vote BD app, EC Additional Secretary KM Ali Newaz told Bangla Tribune that the system has minimal risk of data leaks, and measures have been taken to ensure voter information remains secure.
Mamunur Hossain, deputy project director of the Out-of-Country Voting System & Implementation (OCV–SDI) project and EC system analyst, said the app is fully developed by domestic technology experts. While there are 15 million expat Bangladeshis worldwide, the app currently supports initial registration for 5 million voters, with preparations to expand to 10 million if needed.
He added that the app ensures secure voting through eKYC, liveliness checks, and QR code verification, along with multi-layered authentication and extensive testing of web and mobile applications. Vulnerability assessments and necessary testing were also conducted by BGD e-Gov CIRT and BCC before the app launch.
