The Election Commission (EC) has started the process of registering national identity in the United States. As a result, Bangladeshi citizens living in America will now be able to apply and become voters from there.

ASM Humayun Kabir, Director General of the National Identity Registration Division, gave this information on Wednesday (October 15).

He said, "The NID registration process has started at the four mission offices we have in America. And these have been tested and after testing, we have been successful and it is being done from here. As proof of success, we have processed the NID cards of 10 people from here and after getting the numbers, we handed them over to them. Through this, the registration process was also inaugurated."

He said, "Now there are no more obstacles for those who want to register as voters or get NID services from America. From now on, they can become voters by providing the documents that we regularly follow."

He also said, "Those who will work in our mission office in our absence have tested our technical people and said they can do it. Besides, if there are any difficulties while working, they have kept the numbers of the technical people who came here and will share them with them if there is any difficulty. The technical person who was in the team will contact that team and guide them if there is any difficulty."

It is learned that the Election Commission had planned to expand the program to 40 countries, of which, with the consent of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the EC's registration and voter registration program for expatriate Bangladeshis is currently underway at 17 stations in 11 countries (United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, Qatar, Malaysia, Australia, Canada, Japan and the United States).

The Election Commission has collected information from various organizations including the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare, Manpower Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) and found that there are a large number of Bangladeshi expatriates in 40 countries. Activities are being taken forward keeping these countries in mind.

The countries are: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya, Sudan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, United Kingdom, Italy, Hong Kong, Egypt, Brunei, Mauritius, Iraq, United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Greece, Spain, Germany, South Africa, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Maldives, New Zealand, Russia, Turkey and Cyprus. There are 14 million 46 thousand 534 expatriates in these countries. The highest number of expatriates is 4 million 49 thousand 588 in Saudi Arabia. The lowest number is 2 thousand 500 in New Zealand.