TDS Desk:

More than 21,000 postal ballots cast by Bangladeshi voters overseas have reached the country ahead of the 13th parliamentary election.

By 10:30am on Tuesday, 21,508 postal ballots had been returned, according to Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the Election Commission’s OCV-SDI project.

He said a total of 425,788 expatriate voters had cast their ballots, with 370,322 submitting them to post offices or postal drop boxes in their countries of residence.

The Election Commission said it had sent postal ballots to 766,862 expatriate voters ahead of the election scheduled for Feb 12. As of Tuesday morning, 493,920 overseas voters had received their ballots.

The commission has urged expatriate voters to return their ballots “as quickly as possible”. Only ballots that reach the returning officer by 4:30pm on polling day in Bangladesh will be included in the count.

In total, 1.53 million voters at home and abroad registered to vote by post this year, with expatriates accounting for more than half the figure.

Alongside overseas voters, three categories of voters within Bangladesh are also eligible to vote by postal ballot. These include election officials on duty, government employees working outside their home constituencies, and voters in legal custody, according to the Election Commission.