Dhaka: A total of 194,914 postal ballots from expatriates have reached Bangladesh ahead of the upcoming 13th Jatiya Sangsad (JS) Election and Referendum, said media reports on February 2, citing official sources.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the OCV-SDI project on expatriate voter registration, said today that 766,862 ballots have already been dispatched to expatriates registered through the "Postal Vote BD" app.

Of these, 522,315 voters abroad have received their ballots, while 464,225 have completed voting, he said, adding that so far, 418,962 ballots have been deposited in post offices or mailboxes in respective countries.

In addition, Bangladesh posts have forwarded 1,859 ballots to returning officers.

The Election Commission (EC) has also begun sending postal ballots to voters residing inside the country. Ballots have already been dispatched to 646,507 registered voters nationwide.

As of 11 am this morning, 58,797 domestic voters have received their ballots. Among them, 43,319 have completed voting, and 29,334 have submitted their ballots to post offices or mailboxes.

Salim Ahmad Khan further informed that a total of 1,533,684 voters, both at home and abroad, have registered on the app to cast their votes through postal ballots in the 13th JS Election and Referendum.