No expat voter from Ctg appeals for postal ballot
No expatriate voter from Chattogram's different constituencies has appealed for postal ballot to cast their franchise in the upcoming election slated for January 7 next year.
Representation of the People Order (RPO) 1972's Article 27 and Section 8 of the Voters' List Act stipulate the details about postal voting.
According to the electoral laws, postal votes can be cast by anyone tasked with polling duties, by government employees who live elsewhere for a job posting, and by expatriates and prisoners.
Application for postal ballot should be submitted to the Election Commission within 15 days after announcement of the polls schedule.
"Although we have all kinds of preparation, no one applied for postal vote this time," said Chattogram deputy commissioner Abul Bashar Mohammed Fakhruzzaman, also the returning officer for 10 constituencies of Chattogram.
"The time for application has already expired and there is no scope to do anything about it," he added.
Chattogram Divisional Commissioner Office, as well as the RO office for six other seats in the district, echoed the same.
However, there is no exact data about the number of expatriate voters from Chattogram to the EC office and the district expatriate's welfare and overseas employment department.
According to the district expatriate's welfare office, a total of 1,90,706 people from Chattogram went abroad in the last five years for different reasons, including 51,149 who migrated between January and November this year. The officials said the department just records the data of only those who migrated, not the returnees.
"Many voters in our country are unaware of the postal ballot system. In the US, UK and other countries, voters know details on how to cast their votes through postal ballot and the countries have been practicing the system for many years," said Prof Siraj Ud Dowla, dean of Chittagong University's social science faculty.
More campaigning about postal ballots by the EC can raise awareness in this regard, he added.
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