EC sends postal ballots to over 0.29m expat voters

The Election Commission (EC) has dispatched postal ballots to 293,147 expatriate voters in various countries over the last eight days, enabling them to cast their votes in the 13th Jatita Sangsad (JS) election and referendum, reports BSS.

Confirming the matter, Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Out of Country Voting System Development and Implementation (OCV-SDI) project for expatriate voter registration, said the ballots were sent on Friday evening and over the preceding seven days to expatriate voters across the world.

He said the number of in-country postal voter registrations is expected to increase further.

"We hope the number of registered in-country postal voters, including government employees, election duty personnel and voters in legal custody, may reach 1.0 million," he added, noting that expatriate voter registration could exceed 0.6 million.

According to EC sources, postal ballots were sent to 57,360 expatriate voters in various countries on Friday alone, with the highest number-22,000-dispatched to Saudi Arabia.

Earlier on Thursday, 10,999 ballots were sent to the United Arab Emirates, 3,500 to the United Kingdom, 900 to Kuwait and 17,500 to Saudi Arabia.