All hands on deck to deliver precious papers

 

Not taking any chances: Tan showing the postal votes she will be driving back from Singapore to Johor.

JOHOR BARU: Malaysians abroad are pooling resources to ensure their ballots reach the country on time, with one couple deciding to make the drive across the Causeway themselves.

Housewife Joanna Tan Sue Mae, 53, said she and her husband got their ballots on Monday but were worried they would not be able to send them back on time.

“I decided to come back to Malaysia to post our postal votes on Tuesday,” she said, adding that the postal registration process was easy.

“In March, we registered as postal voters and voted in the Johor state elections. At that time, the border was still closed and volunteers helped collect and send our ballots back to Johor,” she said.

Joanna and her husband, Tan Chee Yan, 54, are voters in the Tebrau parliamentary constituency.

There are more than 4,000 people registered as postal voters in Singapore.

Commercial insurance broker Foo Chia Ming, 37, said he had been worried about missing out on the vote after registering as a postal voter.

Bring it home safe: Malaysian voters in Singapore handing over their ballot papers to a group of volunteers on the island republic, who will later send it back home for the election.

“There are many stories about people getting their ballots late. However, everything went smoothly and I received mine on Sunday.

“On Monday, I sent it to a group of volunteers in Singapore for it to be delivered to Malaysia,” said Foo, who voted for the Damak state seat and Jerantut parliamentary seat in Pahang.

“In 2018, my brother and I drove back to Pahang to cast our votes. This time, I opted for postal voting instead,” he said, adding that his brother would be making his way home.

Business development executive Farrah Diyana Mohammad Ali, 34, who has been working in Singapore for about 10 years, is a volunteer who has been helping Malaysians on the island republic to send their ballots home.

“This is the second time we are volunteering to deliver the ballots. The first was during the Johor state election, where volunteers send the ballots back by bus.

“This time, two volunteers will fly to Kuala Lumpur on Nov 17 while 15 of us will drive across.

“The ballots will all be sent to Kuala Lumpur to be sorted before being delivered to the respective returning officers,” said the 1third Media Movement volunteer.

The 1third Media Movement is among NGOs worldwide that are working with Undi18 to bring Malaysians’ ballots back to the country.

Undi18 co-founder and advocacy director Tharma Pillai said they were aiming to deliver some 50,000 ballots from Malaysians all over the world.

“We are working with about 18 youth and student organisations around the world,” he said.

“We have also received flight sponsorship from Malaysia Airlines for the ballots to be delivered from five countries – Singapore, United Kingdom, Japan, Indonesia and Australia.

“The ballots are expected to reach KLIA between Nov 16 and 18,” he said.

He added that Undi18 is highly dependent on public donations to fund its initiative and those wanting to help out could do so at https://www.givinghub.asia/campaigns/undi18empower. - Star