Dhaka: Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah on Thursday announced that the Election Commission (EC) has found no evidence of irregularities in the postal ballots sent to expatriate Bangladeshis abroad. This conclusion was reached after scrutinizing several video clips circulating on social media regarding the distribution of these ballots.
According to United News of Bangladesh, the election commissioner stated during a press briefing at Nirbachan Bhaban that the Commission had received video clips from three different locations. These clips were carefully examined, but no evidence of any deviation was detected. Sanaullah’s remarks were made in response to concerns expressed by some political parties, which led the Commission to take swift action to verify the situation by contacting relevant embassies.
Sanaullah emphasized the EC’s commitment to maintaining the integrity of the postal balloting system, stating, “There will be no leniency for anyone concerning postal ballots.” This statement follows the earlier concerns raised by BNP on Tuesday regarding the viral videos related to the distribution of postal ballots sent to expatriates.
The Election Commissioner provided detailed statistics, revealing that a total of 767,084 postal ballots were dispatched for expatriate voters. Out of these, 707,500 ballots have already reached their destinations in various countries, while 59,584 are still in transit. Through QR code scans, it was confirmed that approximately 140,873 expatriate voters have received their ballots.
Sanaullah noted that some ballots had been returned undelivered due to incorrect addresses, with 4,521 ballots returned, primarily from Malaysia and Italy. He explained that many expatriate voters use shared addresses due to limited accommodation without individual mailing addresses, especially in labour-intensive destinations in the Middle East and Malaysia. He provided specific figures on shared addresses, illustrating the challenges faced in accurately delivering postal ballots to expatriate voters.