KUALA LUMPUR – The rush is on to bring home ballot papers of overseas voters for the 15th general election (GE15), with many Malaysians chipping in to help their countrymen in foreign countries.
For the Vote Malaysia UKE movement, time is of utmost importance as their volunteers rushed to deliver a whopping 6,932 ballots from Malaysian students in the United Kingdom and Ireland to the sorting centre at the Kuala Lumpur Chinese Assembly Hall here early this morning.
Speaking to The Vibes, movement secretary Muhammad Aqmar Putra, 20, said efforts to gather the necessary manpower to send votes back had been initiated from as early as August, when rumours of a snap election began circulating.
“Besides planning our strategy to help Malaysian students send their ballot papers back home, we also organised workshops and briefings on how to apply for postal voting since we wanted to increase voter turnout.
“Looking at the huge number of ballots we managed to gather and send back before voting day, I feel our attempt was very successful,” he said, noting that the group had put together similar initiatives during the Johor election in March.
“This is the most historic general election for Malaysia since it is the first national polls since the legal voting age was lowered to 18.
“With a massive influx of youth voters, we wanted to make sure that all Malaysian students studying here can still carry out their responsibility and vote for a new government,” he said.
Postal votes are supposed to arrive at their respective returning officers here before 5pm on voting day tomorrow.
Aqmar added that the initiative had also been sparked due to how the Election Commission (EC) does not shoulder costs to send ballot papers back home, causing some voters to be hesitant to apply for postal voting since they will have to bear high prices.
“Sometimes the cost of sending the ballot papers back to Malaysia can cost up to £30-£60 (around RM163-RM326),” he lamented.
The cost of voting appears to be a common issue among overseas voters, with Dinesh Nair, 36, taking it upon himself to ease such worries by making it his mission to hand over the ballot papers of Malaysian students in India.
“I came across a number of Malaysian medical students from Universiti Sains Malaysia-Karnataka Lingayat Education (USM-KLE) on Facebook expressing their concerns about how expensive it will be to send their individual votes back to Malaysia,” he told The Vibes yesterday.
“After discussing the matter with them, we concluded that flying in the votes in bulk through a representative would be a more cost-effective option.
“Unfortunately, these students were not able to arrange immediate travel plans due to academic commitments and visa restrictions. That’s when I decided to step in.”
Since Dinesh, a UK Government Chevening Scholar studying at the University of Manchester, was temporarily on a research assignment in Bangalore, India, it only made sense for him to make a quick trip back to Malaysia before immediately returning to India.
The former lecturer, who credited the flight costs to a crowdfunding by 100 USM-KLE students, said the drive shown by young Malaysians thousands of miles away should serve as a motivation for voters in Malaysia to turn up at their polling stations tomorrow.
Malaysians will head to the polls tomorrow, with polling stations set to close at 6pm. – The Vibes, November 18, 2022
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