Expatriate Insurance News: Bangladeshi expats granted voting rights
23/08/10 18:10
Bangladeshi expatriates have been granted the right to vote from overseas after the country's cabinet finally bowed to pressure over the matter.
Prime minister's secretary Abul Kalam Azad said the decision would pave the way for six million expats living and working in more than 100 foreign countries to participate in all elections in Bangladesh.
Expatriate campaigning groups have long been pushing the government for the right to exercise their voting rights from other countries.
Abdur Rahman, president of the International Expatriates Welfare Association of Bangladesh, told the Associated Press of Pakistan: "Voting right is our basic demand as the citizens of Bangladesh."
He suggested that it would be possible for the Election Commission to include the names of expat citizens on the electoral register within a few days, which would allow them to cast their votes through Bangladesh's missions in countries abroad.
Bangladesh Bank has seen $10 billion worth of remittances flow back to the country from expats working abroad in the last financial year, The New Nation reported at the beginning of August.
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