A total of 17,367 Bangladeshi expatriates have so far been registered as voters after they applied from nine foreign countries through Bangladeshi missions there.
“Till now, 48,080 expatriate Bangladeshis have applied to become voters through missions in nine countries…. of them, 17,367 expatriates have already become voters,” Election Commission’s NID Registration Wing Director General ASM Humayun Kabir told reporters at Nirbachan Bhaban on Tuesday.
He said some 11,287 smart cards against the new voters have already been distributed as well.
Now the NID registration services are provided at 16 Bangladesh mission offices stationed in nine countries --the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia, Australia and Canada. But the Commission has a plan to gradually expand the services to 40 countries.
42,000 Bangladeshi expats seek voter registration abroad
The NID services will soon be launched in five more countries – the United States, Oman, South Africa, Jordan and the Maldives, said the NID Registration Wing DG.
In November 2019, the then Election Commission initiated online registration in Malaysia as a pilot, but the initiative faced setback due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The process resumed in July 2023 but faced a fresh deadlock following the political change on August 5, 2024.
The current EC headed by Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin restarted the NID registration services in foreign lands.