PETALING JAYA: Despite putting in a lot of effort and organisation to ensure Malaysians abroad participate in the 15th general election (GE15), ballot papers have not arrived in some countries by the due date.
VoteMalaysia global coordinator and Malaysia Students Global Alliance (MSGA) senior vice-president (advocacy) Jonathan Lee Rong Sheng, who is based in the UK, told theSun: “Malaysians living in the UK have not received their ballots as of today (Nov 15) while in Taiwan, the situation is terrible.
“A survey by JomUndi GE15, VoteMalaysia’s arm in Taiwan involving 339 postal voters there and which was conducted on Nov 12, concluded that 96.7% of them have not received their postal ballot as of the Nov 12 due date.”
Election Commision Postal Vote Management Unit official Azmil Mustapa said the delivery process is ongoing for international and local postal voters.
“If postal voters have not received their ballot papers yet, they can check the delivery status on whether it has been delivered, is in transit or at the sorting facility via the 24-hour postal vote unit at 03-8892 7080,” he said, declining further comment.
As a VoteMalaysia global coordinator, Lee brought together youth organisations operating in different countries and coordinated the movement of postal ballots from the time they are received by voters at the respective collection centres until they arrive in Malaysia.
“Despite working and studying overseas, Malaysians abroad are eager to participate in GE15 through postal voting, so we are very disappointed over the delay in receiving the ballot papers in the UK and Taiwan,” he said.
A forerunner of the postal voting movement, VoteMalaysia facilitates the process of sending postal ballots from abroad to the respective counting stations in Malaysia.
It is carrying out its work with the help of students, volunteers and Malaysians overseas to bring some 50,000 postal votes back home by plane.
“VoteMalaysia also created content for social media platforms regarding postal voting. This includes filling up postal ballots and the things postal voters need to take note of, especially the dos and don’ts after receiving their ballot paper,” Lee told theSun.
Fuelled by volunteers and funds from the public, VoteMalaysia commenced its comprehensive planning on bringing votes from the Malaysian diaspora in June.
“We speculated on the possibility of a general election taking place at the end of this year.
“When I liaised with Malaysian student organisations in other countries through MSGA, they said they wanted to participate in the election, but were unable to do so due to the distance and time constraints. With that, the idea of organising a postal voting movement came to mind,” he said.
VoteMalaysia is determined to come up with a postal voting mechanism to enable Malaysians to be notified regarding the movement of the postal ballots from the mailbox of their residence overseas to the dropbox in Malaysia, ensuring the delivery of the ballots are safe and arrive at the returning office address correctly and on time.
“When we thought about postal voting, moments from GE14 crossed our minds. We could see Malaysians holding up placards at airports, asking anybody to take their votes back to Malaysia. Hence, the foundation of VoteMalaysia was essentially a response to that,” he said.
With Malaysia Airlines sponsoring flight tickets to and from Malaysia, Lee expected the postal ballots to touch down in Kuala Lumpur in time for the ballots to be despatched to the different states.
“As we know, Nov 19 is polling day and it is stipulated that all postal ballots have to arrive at the returning office address by 5pm.
“The runners from the UK are going to be flying back on Nov 17, and will arrive at the KL International Airport on the morning of Nov 18,” Lee said.
The ballots will then be passed to Undi18, which has organised a collection centre in Malaysia, to sort the ballots for the 339 contested seats. After that, Undi18 and its team of volunteers will be responsible for handing the ballots to the address of the respective returning officers by 5pm on Nov 19.
Lee, who is also a runner for Malaysians living in the UK, said the ballot papers from the EC were scheduled to arrive in three batches – on Nov 11, 14 and 16.
VoteMalaysia is a non-partisan coalition formed by 14 Malaysian youth organisations.
They include Persatuan Pengundi Muda (Undi18), MSGA, the Malaysian Students Council of Australia and the United Kingdom and Eire Council for Malaysian Students.
