The Election Commission of Bangladesh (EC) has confirmed that 70.25 percent of registered postal ballots were counted as valid in the Thirteenth National Parliament election and referendum. The information was released on Thursday night, 12 February, based on final statistics compiled by the commission.
According to the EC, 1,528,131 citizens registered to vote through the “Postal Vote BD” app for this election. Of them, 767,233 registered from abroad, while 760,898 registered from within Bangladesh. Domestic applicants included government employees, members of law enforcement agencies, and prisoners.
Out of the total registered voters, 1,224,188 people cast their ballots. This represents 80.11 percent of all those who registered for postal voting. Among those who voted, 544,372 were overseas voters and 679,816 were domestic voters.
However, not all ballots reached the returning officers due to procedural reasons. The EC said 1,165,592 ballots were received by returning officers, which equals 76.28 percent of registered voters. Of these received ballots, 668,388 came from within the country and 498,204 came from abroad.
After verification, 1,073,497 ballots were accepted as valid. This figure represents 70.25 percent of the total registered postal voters. Among the valid ballots, 601,524 were from domestic voters and 471,973 were from overseas voters.
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EC officials said a significant number of ballots were cancelled during verification. The main reasons included missing voter signatures, failure to submit the correct declaration form, and sending ballots in violation of election rules. Only ballots received by 4:30 pm on Thursday were accepted for counting.
The commission has not yet published the full breakdown of how these valid postal votes affected constituency results. Officials said the postal vote result will be published very soon.
Postal voting plays an important role for Bangladeshis living abroad and for officials who cannot attend polling centres on election day. The data shows strong participation from both overseas and domestic voters in this election.
The Election Commission is expected to release further details as part of the final election reporting process.