Political parties on Tuesday welcomed the government move to make arrangements for Bangladeshi expatriates to vote from abroad, while at the same time voiced reservations citing technical and institutional challenges.
At a seminar on the 鈥楧evelopment of voting system for Bangladeshi diaspora鈥� organised by the Election Commission at its headquarters Nirbachan Bhaban in the capital, experts presented three alternative methods to enable the expatriates to vote in the 13th parliamentary elections鈥攁 postal ballot system, an online voting platform and proxy voting.
Currently, expatriate voters make up around 10 per cent of the country鈥檚 total electorate.
Political leaders at the seminar stressed that the system must be accessible for unskilled migrant workers, while saying that it was of prime importance that the Election Commission carry out the process in an absolutely transparent manner.
At the opening remarks of the seminar, chief election commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin said that they had conducted various in-house exercises with the assistance of experts in developing a robust system for expatriate voting.
He remarked that such initiatives were highly country-specific in nature across the world, with no one-size-fits-all solution.
Decisions must be made by considering a country鈥檚 socio-economic and political realities, level of education and other relevant factors,鈥� he said.
鈥楳any countries have implemented overseas voting, and many have not been able to. But we want to start鈥攁t least on a limited scale, in a limited setting,鈥� he said.
Experts from Dhaka University, the University of Engineering and Technology, and the Military Institute of Science and Technology presented the methods of postal ballot system, online voting platform and proxy voting system respectively.
Election commissioner Abul Fazal Md Sanaullah asked for feedback from political leaders within 15 days so that they could launch overseas voting on a limited scale in the next election.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan said that the most effective, widely acceptable, implementable and cost-efficient method should be chosen.
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami central working council member Jasim Uddin Sarkar said that challenges regarding selecting the best method should be addressed through a trial-and-error approach.聽
Comunist Party of Bangladesh presidium member Sazzad Zahir Chandan said that they supported the initiative but any decision in this regard should come through taking the political parties in confidence.
National Citizen Party joint convener Khalid Saifullah said that his party had reservation over the proxy voting method.
Gono Odhikar Parishad general secretary Muhammad Rashed Khan remarked that the process seemed to involve great difficulties for voters especially for the unskilled migrant workers.
Ganosamhati Andolon political council member Monir Uddin Pappu also raised concerns about proxy voting, citing risks of fraud.聽
He also asked for more time for giving feedback on the proposed voting methods.
