Cox’s Bazar, Feb 10 (V7N) – A total of 28,630 voters in four parliamentary constituencies of Cox’s Bazar exercised their franchise through postal ballots in the 13th National Parliament election, marking a significant expansion of voter participation, particularly among expatriates and special-category voters.

According to district administration officials, postal voting was completed within the stipulated timeframe in Cox’s Bazar-1, 2, 3 and 4 constituencies. The ballots will be counted after 4:30 pm on February 12, alongside regular votes.

Irfan Ul Hasan, Assistant Commissioner of the Cox’s Bazar district administration and officer in charge of postal voting, said that all received postal ballots would be counted following standard electoral procedures.

Constituency-wise data showed the highest number of postal votes in Cox’s Bazar-3 (Cox’s Bazar Sadar, Ramu and Eidgaon) with 10,917 ballots, followed by Cox’s Bazar-1 (Chakaria–Pekua) with 9,635, Cox’s Bazar-2 (Moheshkhali–Kutubdia) with 4,212, and Cox’s Bazar-4 (Ukhia–Teknaf) with 3,866 votes.

The district administration said postal vote counting will take place at the Cox’s Bazar Indoor Stadium on election day. Required manpower, including presiding, polling and assistant officers, has been deployed, with one assistant officer assigned for every 300 ballots. Officials confirmed that the entire counting process will be monitored by CCTV cameras, ensuring transparency. Candidates or their authorised agents will be allowed to observe the proceedings.

After verification through a scanning process, ballot boxes will be opened and votes counted. Ballots cast for the referendum ‘Yes’ option will be tallied separately.

Officials noted that expatriate Bangladeshis from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Malaysia and Singapore, among other countries, participated in the postal voting. Government and private-sector employees, as well as eligible prisoners, also cast votes under the system, which was introduced to broaden electoral inclusion.

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