Staff Correspondent:

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) AMM Nasir Uddin has warned that efforts to establish a voting system for expatriate Bangladeshis will be futile without the support of political parties.

“We want to move forward with your suggestions. All of our preparations will amount to nothing if political leaders don’t support us,” he said during his opening remarks at a seminar to explore voting options for expatriates on Tuesday.

The Election Commission (EC) is considering several methods, including postal ballots, online voting, and proxy voting, to allow expatriate Bangladeshis to participate in the 13th national election.

“We want to introduce at least one of these options in the upcoming election. Many countries made similar efforts but couldn’t continue them. Some have already introduced it while others have yet to do so,” said Nasir.

“When we took over, we took the initiative to extend voting rights to Bangladeshi expatriates in the upcoming election. We are committed to it. The chief advisor has also made this pledge to the nation.”

For the last few months, Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus and the current EC have stressed the need to create a voting system for expatriates ahead of the next election.

The CEC pointed out that the demand for an expatriate voting system has been long-standing. “We see media reports about it and leaders have also been quite vocal about the issue.”

“We have been working on the issue from the beginning. We did some in-house exercises and consulted specialist organisations. We’re trying to come up with an effective option.”

He emphasised that any decision must take into account Bangladesh’s socio-economic and political realities, as well as the overall education level.

“Our experts have been working tirelessly for the last few months and have provided us with some suggestions. Despite time constraints and other limitations, we are discussing our findings with you and sharing what we have done so far. We want to share our experiences.”

Representatives from as many as 21 political parties, including the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and NCP, are participating in the seminar.