The Election Commission (EC) will cancel expatriate voter registration applications if applicants fail to respond within seven days after repeated attempts to contact them, officials said today.

The directive applies to cases where election officials need to verify information after collecting an applicant's biometric data.

According to the EC, the relevant upazila or thana election officer will first make several attempts to contact the applicant using the registered mobile number. If those calls go unanswered, the officer will send a text message.

"If no response is received within seven days of sending the message, the officer will cancel the application through the CMS account," Mohammad Al-Mamun, assistant director (Data Verification Services) of the EC's National Identity (NID) Wing, told The Daily Star.

Mamun said the commission had issued the directive because many expatriate applicants fail to answer or return calls from election officials, delaying the verification process.

The EC is currently conducting expatriate voter registration and NID distribution at 24 stations in 14 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Kuwait and Malaysia.

The commission is also preparing to launch expatriate voter registration in five more countries -- Sweden, Bahrain, Singapore, Norway and Finland.