Expatriate Bangladeshis will be able to vote in the upcoming national parliamentary election via postal ballots, while the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be discontinued in both national and local elections, Election Commissioner Brigadier General (Retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah announced on Thursday.
He made the statements following a meeting held at Nirbachan Bhaban in Agargaon, Dhaka, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin.
On the issue of expatriate voting, Sanaullah said: “A final decision has been taken to allow non-resident Bangladeshis to cast their votes in this election via postal ballots. The new system will be IT-supported postal voting to address the limitations of the previous method.”
“Previously, voters had to physically apply to the returning officer for a postal ballot. Now, they can apply online from their current location,” he added.
“Additionally, instead of routing ballots through the returning officer—which caused delays—we have made a policy decision to send the ballots immediately after printing, in the presence of an assistant returning officer or designated official,” he explained.
He added: “There had been proposals to study systems used in other countries where blank ballots are issued.”
He also said: “The global average wastage rate of postal ballots stands at around 24%, but for countries like Bangladesh with a widely dispersed and structured diaspora, that rate rises to nearly 50%.”
“One of our commissioners suggested that we consider pre-printing all candidate symbols and sending the ballots two months in advance, allowing voters to mark their choice and send it back. We have decided to have the technical committee review this option,” he said.
The Election Commission is planning to launch a project to facilitate postal voting for expatriates, initially estimated to cost Tk48 crore.
Sanaullah expressed confidence that, unlike previous attempts, this updated system will yield meaningful participation from the non-resident Bangladeshis.
The Election Commission has also officially moved away from the idea of proxy voting for expatriates and is instead trialling the online-supported system.
According to the commissioner, each postal vote is expected to cost approximately Tk700.
On the discontinuation of EVMs, Sanaullah said: “There is currently no political consensus or support from the reform commission regarding EVMs. From the beginning, we had decided not to use EVMs in the national election. Today, we also decided that EVMs will not be used in any upcoming local elections either.”
He added that a committee would be formed to determine the future of the existing EVMs and how to manage or repurpose them.
