EC to send SMS urging govt officials to register for postal voting
The registration process will remain open until 25 December 2025
The Election Commission (EC) has instructed the relevant authorities to send SMS alerts to all government officials and employees, encouraging them to register for voting through postal ballots ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election and the referendum on the July Charter.
The instruction was given in a letter signed today (17 December) by KM Ali Newaz, additional secretary of the Election Commission and Project Director of the OCV–SDI project.
According to the letter, government officials and employees working inside the country, as well as officers and employees of the armed forces who receive salaries through the iBAS++ system, will be able to cast their votes through an IT-supported postal ballot after completing registration via the "Postal Vote BD" app.
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The registration process will remain open until 25 December 2025, the letter said.
The 13th parliamentary election and the referendum will be held simultaneously on 12 February 2026.
The EC has instructed the authorities concerned to send SMS messages to all military and civilian government officials and employees who are drawing salaries through the iBAS++ system, requesting them to complete their registration through the app by the stipulated deadline.
The SMS text will be "All government officials and employees (military and civilian) are requested to complete registration through the 'Postal Vote BD' app by December 25, 2025, to cast votes through IT-supported postal ballots."
The commission said postal ballots will be sent by mail to the registered voters' addresses. After casting their votes, voters will have to return the ballots in the provided return envelopes to the respective returning officers.
Though the postal balloting system has been in the laws for a long time, it was never practised in the previous elections.
This is the first time the EC has introduced an IT-supported hybrid postal balloting system, enabling expatriates, government staff, polling personnel, and the persons who will be in the legal custody to exercise their franchise through a combination of digital registration and manual voting.
Among them, the probable polling personnel who are not in the government services, and the prisoners will be able to register after 17 to 25 December for voting through the postal ballots in the upcoming election.
So far 46,701 government officials and employees registered through the app to vote in the 12 February election after the announcement of the election schedule announced on 11 December.
The Election Commission said postal ballots will be sent by mail to the registered voters' addresses. After casting their votes, voters will have to return the ballots in the provided return envelopes to the respective returning officers.
The EC also said that instructions in this regard have already been sent to the secretary of the Finance Division.
According to the election schedule, the deadline for the submission of nomination paper is 29 December, while the scrutiny of nomination paper is on 30 December to 4 January and the last date for the withdrawal of candidature is 20 January.
The election campaign will start on 22 January and continue till 48 hours before the balloting period (7:30am on 10 February).
