Dhaka, Feb. 11 -- More than half a million Bangladeshi expatriates have exercised their franchise through postal ballots ahead of the country's 13th National Parliamentary Election and referendum, Dhaka Tribune reported, marking the first time overseas voters have formally taken part in a national election.

Citing Election Commission (EC) data, the report said that as of 9:15 am (local time) Wednesday, 515,619 expatriates had successfully cast their votes using the IT-enabled postal voting system.

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the OCV-SDI project overseeing expatriate voter registration, said 766,862 ballots were dispatched abroad to voters who registered via the Postal Vote BD app. Among them, 528,579 voters received their ballots, ...