The Election Commission (EC) of Bangladesh has completed sending postal ballots to expatriate voters ahead of the upcoming 13th parliamentary election and referendum. The EC warned that any political campaigning on ballot envelopes sent to registered voters will be treated as a punishable offense. Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the OCV-SDI project, confirmed the information on Sunday. The EC also urged voters registered through the Postal Vote BD app to collect their ballots personally and maintain secrecy, warning that violations could lead to National ID card blocking and legal action.

According to the EC, postal ballots were sent to expatriate voters between December 20 and January 8, and many have already received them. After election symbols are allocated on January 21, expatriates will cast their votes and return the ballots to the returning officers. Within Bangladesh, 761,141 voters registered under the in-country postal vote category, and their ballots will be sent after symbol allocation. The EC reported a total of 1,533,683 registered postal voters through the Postal Vote BD app.

The entire domestic postal voting process is expected to take about seven days, according to EC officials.