THE Johor elections in March was a historical moment for Malaysia as more than 749,731 new voters were registered via automatic voter registration following the ruling of the Kuching High Court on September 21, 2021.

These developments were well received by Malaysians living abroad as more than 1.7 million citizens (comprising students, civil servants and working professionals) were now automatically registered as voters in Malaysia.

However, the initial excitement quickly subsided as overseas voters were presented with unending challenges in their quest to exercising their right to vote in the Johor polls.

For example, although the number of Malaysian students, as reported by the United Kingdom and Eire Council of Malaysian Students (UKEC), totals more than 15,000, Undi18’s demand for the Office of the Malaysian High Commission in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to be used as a polling station was not entertained by the Election Commission (EC). As a result, each voter had to post their ballot back to Malaysia individually. This cost them up to £30 (around RM156) each.

To address this issue, Persatuan Pengundi Muda (Undi18) together with Badan Perhubungan Negara UK & Eire (BPN UKE), initiated a campaign to raise awareness and facilitate postal voting in the UK and Ireland in the previous in the Johor elections. We emphasised that the short time frame given for postal ballot registrations and campaigning was the main constraint for postal voters. Because of the short time window, many who were eligible were not able to register as postal voters.

The short campaigning period also meant that the duration allowed for the ballots to be posted from Malaysia to the UK and vice versa was extremely short and this increased the risk of ballots not reaching Malaysia in time to meet the postal voting deadline. In the case of the Johor elections, the late arrival of postal ballots to voters in the UK meant that they had only five days to post their ballots back to Malaysia. Voters had to resort to other means to ensure that their ballots arrived on time.

Not only that, but the courier service provider chosen by the EC was poorly managed and did not deliver what was promised. As many as 46% of voters registered in BPN UKE’s database either received their ballots later than the promised time frame or did not receive their ballots at all.

Among those who did not receive their ballots, some even reported that their papers were sent to the wrong addresses. For example, Sarah, 24, was contacted by a Singapore resident who informed her that her ballot had been sent to Singapore. This was a long way of from her registered address in the UK.

We stress that this is not an isolated incident. According to the Malaysian Students Global Alliance (MSGA), another student organisation that facilitated postal voting for the Johor elections, a similar situation happened among Malaysian voters in Australia. Carol, 20, an undergraduate at the University of Sydney, reported that she only received her ballot four days after the elections had concluded.

The unsatisfactory postal voting system is in fact not new. In the 2018 general election, many ballots arrived in the UK only on the day of election, or after the election had concluded. This prompted Bersih and several other civil society groups to initiate “Projek Undi Rabu” to collect and transport ballots back to Malaysia themselves.

We do not wish to see a repeat of these incidents in future state and national polls. We do not wish to hear the same stories as we heard in the Johor elections, where out of 200,000 postal voters that were eligible to vote, only 7,814 overseas postal ballots were released while the number of postal votes actually received on polling day is still unknown to the public.

To address this issue, a coalition consisting of several Malaysian student organisations worldwide will be formed. Swift and immediate actions will be taken to ensure that our rights as overseas Malaysians to vote are not sidelined simply because of inefficiencies in the current system. Otherwise, 1.7 million Malaysian citizens overseas will continue to be robbed of their right to vote. – September 19, 2022.

* Vote Malaysia Movement consists of:

– Persatuan Pengundi Muda (Undi18)

– Malaysian Student Global Alliance (MSGA)

– United Kingdom & Eire Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC)

– Badan Perhubungan Negara United Kingdom dan Eire (BPN UKE)

– Malaysian Democratic Alliance in UK (Demokratik)

– Kesatuan Penuntut Undang-undang Malaysia di United Kingdom & Eire (KPUM)

– Institut Demokrasi & Emansipasi Anak Muda (IDEA Belia)

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.