The Election Commission (EC) of Bangladesh has completed sending postal ballots to expatriate voters for the 13th National Parliament election and referendum. On Sunday, the EC issued a warning that any political campaigning or writing on envelopes containing postal ballots will be treated as a punishable offense. Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the OCV-SDI project for expatriate voter registration, confirmed the notice. The EC also advised voters to collect their ballots personally and avoid taking assistance from others to maintain ballot secrecy.

According to the EC, postal ballots were dispatched to expatriate voters between December 20 and January 8. Many have already received their ballots, and after the symbol allocation on January 21, expatriates will cast their votes and return the ballots to the returning officer. Within Bangladesh, 761,141 voters registered under the “in-country postal vote” category, and their ballots will be sent after symbol allocation. The EC expects the domestic postal voting process to take about seven days.

In total, 1,533,683 voters registered through the “Postal Vote BD” app for the 13th national election and referendum.