Dhaka, Feb. 2 -- Almost 465,000 expatriate Bangladeshis have cast their votes by post, with around 195,000 ballots so far reaching Bangladesh, according to the Election Commission (EC).

Salim Ahmad Khan, team leader of the commission's OCV-SDI project, said 194,914 postal ballots had been received as of 11am on Monday.

Data from the postal voting app shows that 464,225 expatriates have already voted. Among them, 418,962 have submitted their ballots to post offices or mailboxes in the countries where they live.

Ahead of the 13th parliamentary election and referendum scheduled for Feb 12, the EC dispatched postal ballots to 766,862 expatriate voters. As of Monday morning, 522,315 expatriates had received their ballots.

The commission ha...