Postal BD app has no connection to voting process: EC

The Election Commission (EC) has said that there is no connection between the ‘Postal BD’ mobile app and voting through declaration forms or ballot papers in the 13th national parliamentary election and referendum.

The commission clarified that signing the declaration form and casting votes on ballot papers are entirely manual processes, while the app is used solely to track voter activities.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the ‘OCV-SDI’ project related to expatriate voter registration, shared the information with journalists today.

He said the mobile app has no link to the declaration form or to voting on the ballot. Once the ballots reach the returning officer, the association with the app is completely severed from the yellow envelope.

He further explained that during vote counting, in the presence of all concerned parties, the yellow envelopes of the respective constituencies are opened first. The declaration forms and ballots are then kept separate, after which ballot counting begins in accordance with prescribed procedures. Under this system, there is no scope to identify a voter together with the vote cast.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has also released the latest update on the voting process of voters residing within the country through the ‘Postal Vote BD’ mobile app (ICPV). According to the EC, as of 12:00pm today the Bangladesh Post Office had sent a total of 646,507 ballots to voters.

Of these, 125,668 voters have received their ballots. A total of 96,632 voters have completed voting, while 70,810 ballots have been submitted by voters at post offices or postal drop boxes. So far, returning officers have received 3,655 ballots, the Election Commission said.