Making a historic precedent in the country’s history, prisoners were able to vote for the first time in the 13th national parliamentary election. Out of 5,990 registered inmates, 4,067 have exercised their right to vote through postal ballots from Tuesday, February 3, to Friday, February 6.
At the same time, they are also participating in the ongoing national referendum on reforms. According to prison authorities, Saturday will be the final day of this special voting process, allowing the remaining 1,923 registered inmates to cast their votes. Authorities confirmed that inmates who do not vote within the designated period will forfeit their voting rights.
This historic voting process includes several former ministers, members of parliament, and senior government officials, with nearly fifty VIP inmates participating. In particular, 39 high-profile inmates at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj registered to vote, including former government advisers Salman F. Rahman, former ministers Anisul Haque, Rashed Khan Menon, Hasanul Haq Inu, and Junaid Ahmed Palak.
Among these registered VIPs, 22 are political leaders, 11 are former secretaries, and five are former police officials. The voting process is being conducted in two organizational zones in the Dhaka division, with 1,476 inmates registered under Dhaka Division-1 and 1,183 under Dhaka Division-2.
Regarding the voting procedure, Assistant Inspector General of Prisons (Development) Jannat-ul-Farhad explained that each registered inmate is provided with a packet containing three envelopes. Each packet includes the ballot papers for parliamentary elections along with separate ballots marked ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ for the referendum.
Inmates fill out their ballots, seal the envelopes, and submit them to the prison authorities. The authorities then send these envelopes to the Election Commission via express postal service. The Election Commission will later include these postal ballots with the general votes from the respective constituencies to announce the final results.
According to prison department data, 1,521 inmates voted on February 3, 988 on February 4, 1,138 on February 5, and 420 on Friday. The online registration process for inmates was conducted over three weeks, with assistance from prison authorities, and was completed by January 5 through a special Election Commission application.
Although there are a total of 86,000 inmates in 75 prisons across the country, only 5,990 registered to vote. Of these, 380 applications were rejected due to errors, and the rest did not submit applications within the designated period. Experts see this initiative as a significant step toward making the country’s democratic process more inclusive.
