More than 16,000 expatriate Bangladeshis have registered to vote by post in the first phase of the 13th parliamentary election’s postal voting process, covering countries in East Asia, South America and Africa.

According to data from the Postal Vote BD portal, over 16,000 registrations were completed from 34 countries as of Sunday evening following the launch of the Postal Vote BD mobile app.

Of the registered voters, 15,377 are men and 1,421 are women. The highest number of applications came from South Korea (7,409), followed by Japan (4,223), South Africa (2,120) and China (1,229).

Although the first phase was scheduled to end at midnight on Sunday, the Election Commission has extended the deadline by five more days until November 28.

The Postal Vote BD app was launched last Tuesday to enable expatriates and three categories of eligible voters within Bangladesh to cast their ballots in parliamentary elections and referendums through postal voting.

Initially, the Election Commission set a five-day registration window for different global regions. In the first phase, Bangladeshis living in 52 countries across East Asia, South America and Africa were allowed to register from November 19 to 23.

Meanwhile, registration for expatriates living in North America and Oceania opened at 12:00am Bangladesh time on Sunday.

At the same time, registration for East Asia, South America and Africa will continue until November 28 following the deadline extension.