First time in its history, Bangladesh to try postal ballots in 2026 election

For the first time in its independent history, Bangladesh will allow postal ballots in the upcoming election scheduled for February 12, 2026. The Election Commission of Bangladesh has started the facilitation process with the help of international postal services that would allow voters to mail the ballots on time to be counted after physical voting ends in Bangladesh.

The process will be carried out through Postal Vote BD App that the voters will have to download first. Next they will be required to create personal accounts, login to their accounts, and add details like passport number and a selfie. Once these steps are completed, the voters will receive ballot papers that they have to drop at their nearest post box to be flown to their respective constituencies. Bangladeshi officials said that to allow sufficient time for the process, voter registration started on November 26, 2025 and will close at 11.29 p.m., January 5, 2026, allowing sufficient time for distribution and collection of postal ballots.

According to the Election Commission of Bangladesh, more than 1.2 million Bangladeshi citizens — both living at home and abroad — have registered already to cast votes through postal ballot system, and out of the total, merely 10,953 voters are still in queue for approval. Almost half of registered voters are based in Bangladesh and the rest are based abroad. 

Bangladesh is one of the largest exporters of manpower from South Asia and has a significant number of its citizens stationed in the Gulf region. Expectedly, Saudi Arabia has the largest number of registered expat Bangladeshi voters with 2.6 lakh Bangladeshi citizens who are expected to send in their postal ballots home for the election. United Kingdom has more than 28,000 Bangladeshi voters and United States has 29,170 registered Bangladeshi postal ballot voters. Qatar, Malaysia, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are some of the other countries with significant number of expat Bangladeshi postal ballot voters.

According to the Election Commission of Bangladesh, the lowest number of registrations took place in Colombia and Cameroon, where only one Bangladeshi voter registered for a postal ballot in each country. In South Asia, India has 297 Bangladeshi citizens enrolled for postal ballots, and in Pakistan, 29 registrations have taken place. An official from Bangladesh explained that the use of postal ballots has become easier with the advent of digital apps and faster postal services as the voters do not have to bear the postal expenses once they register through the Election Commission app.