Malaysians in Singapore band together to deliver postal votes on Aug 12

 

An NGO in Singapore has set up 10 collecting ‘centres’ across the city-state to compile postal ballots before delivering them to a consolidation hub in Kuala Lumpur. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: A group of volunteers in Singapore is helping to compile and deliver the postal ballots of Malaysians voting in the six state elections on Aug 12.

According to Singapore’s The Straits Times, an NGO named 1ThirdMedia Movement based in the city-state had gathered 45 volunteers to help ensure the postal votes would be delivered in time on polling day.

It has set up 10 collecting “centres” across the island on Friday and will continue to collect ballots until Wednesday. The ballots had been sent to voters by post on July 29, and they must reach the respective returning officers by 5pm on Aug 12.

The main coordinator of this initiative, Calvin Ong, said overseas voters had a short window of time between receiving their postal ballots and ensuring they end up in their returning officers’ hands in Malaysia.

“We are expecting between 2,000 and 2,500 ballots this time round. We received 752 ballots within the first two days alone,” Ong said.

To ensure efficiency and that the ballots arrive on time, the NGO has set up a consolidation hub in Kuala Lumpur, where the postal votes will be sorted and delivered to the respective polling stations.

The group had made use of the Telegram app to share information on the procedures for the ballot collection, with the Telegram channel having nearly 2,900 subscribers currently.

A 38-year-old healthcare professional, known only as Wendy, said she was grateful that these volunteers were around to ensure overseas voters’ ballots would arrive on time.

She added that the NGO did more than collect and deliver postal ballots as they also educated voters on the procedures for the ballot votes and who can serve as their witnesses.

Meanwhile, KK Heong said the Election Commission should explore introducing a system that makes use of the Malaysian High Commission in Singapore to gather voters’ ballots.

“Since this has yet to be implemented, Malaysians overseas have (constantly) banded together to help one another in collecting postal ballots from voters to ensure all ballots (reach the polling stations on time),” said the senior marketing and communication executive. - FMT