Major Change in Domestic Postal Voting: EC Moves to Candidate-Based Ballot Design

Ahead of the upcoming 13th National Parliamentary Election, the Election Commission (EC) has decided to introduce a significant change in the design of postal ballots for voters registered within the country. Following a demand from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the revised postal ballot will no longer display the symbols of all political parties. Instead, only the names and symbols of the candidates who are finally nominated in the concerned constituency will be printed on the ballot paper.

Sources within the Election Commission said that a policy-level decision on the matter was taken at an informal meeting of the Commission on Friday night. Election Commissioner Abul Fazal Md. Sanaullah confirmed the issue to the media, stating that the decision was made after considering the validity of objections raised regarding the existing ballot design.

EC officials also noted that the postal ballot design used for expatriate voters will not be applied in the same form for domestic postal voters. Voters residing within the country who have registered to cast their votes through postal ballots will receive ballots with a separate, revised design. These ballots will be sent to the registered addresses of the voters to ensure that they can exercise their voting rights easily and without confusion.

Earlier, a BNP delegation had met with the Election Commission and complained that in the existing postal ballot design, party symbols were placed in such a way that they were not clearly visible once the ballot was folded. This, they argued, could cause confusion among voters. To address this concern, the Election Commission is now moving forward with the decision to modify the ballot design specifically for domestic postal voters.