THE UndiRabu initiative, which helped voters get home to vote in the 14th general election, is back in action for the Port Dickson by-election on October 13.

Although polling will not fall on a weekday as it did for GE14, Alzari Mahshar, one of the drivers behind the initiative, said all voters had the right to pick who they wanted to be their MP.

“There are many independent candidates in the by-election. They don’t have the funds to mobilise voters.

“There’s talk that this is a gifted by-election. So, let the people decide who they want as their MP,” he told The Malaysian Insight, adding that UndiRabu was non-partisan.

Although many were of the view that PKR president-elect Anwar Ibrahim’s win in the by-election was a forgone conclusion, Alzari said voters should still be enabled to return home to cast their ballots.

“Some outstation voters want to go home to vote but can’t because of financial constraints. So, they should be helped.”

Anwar, who is also prime minister-in-waiting, is facing five independent candidates and one from PAS.

As in GE14, UndiRabu will again be collecting donations and disbursing them to voters with amounts depending on their mode of transport.

“As we did in the 14th general election, we will help Port Dickson voters who want to go home to vote in the by-election by subsidising their transport expenses.

“They will get RM50 if they are travelling by land and RM100 if they are going home by air. Those flying home from East Malaysia will get RM200,” Alzari said.

Those in need of UndiRabu’s help can email the team at [email protected] and provide details, such as their MyKad number and a screenshot of their polling stations.

Alzari also said the initiative for Port Dickson would be a short and fast one, lasting about 10 days, unlike GE14’s, which lasted about a month and collected hundreds of thousands of ringgit from donors.

UndiRabu came about in the run-up to GE14 after May 9, a Wednesday, was fixed as polling day.

The move by the previous Barisan Nasional government to set polling on a weekday angered many, with some claiming that it was deliberately done to discourage outstation voters from returning home to vote.

For the Port Dickson by-election, fears had already surfaced that voter turnout would be low. 

The three recent by-elections after GE14 in Seri Setia, Balakong and Sg Kandis in Selangor, saw discouraging turnouts of less than 50%.

On Monday, Anwar pleaded to Port Dickson folk to go out and vote for him next Saturday, telling them not to take it for granted that he would win.

Today, outgoing Port Dickson MP Danyal Balagopal Abdullah, who vacated the seat for Anwar, expressed worry that people were not taking the by-election seriously.

PKR communications director Fahmi Fadzil had said that outstation voters made up an estimated 30% of Port Dickson’s 75,770 registered voters. – October 3, 2018.