A GLOBAL coalition of Malaysian student organisations hopes to deliver the biggest coordinated vote running exercise in the country’s electoral history by assisting one million of its citizens overseas to send their postal ballot papers home.

One of the organisations, the Malaysian Students’ Council of Australia (Masca), the official student representative council in the country, is hoping to assist between 8,000 and 10,000 students in returning their postal ballot papers back home.

The Masca initiative, which has the backing of the Malaysian High Commission in Canberra, would coordinate the collection of the ballot papers and make arrangements to return them to Malaysia.

Masca said it had arranged ballot collection points in all the states, except the Northern Territory, with the collection from November 10 to 15.

The collected ballots will then be delivered to volunteer runners back to Malaysia between November 16 and 17.

Masca said it had linked up with VoteMalaysia and Undi18, whose volunteers will collect and sort the ballots on arriving at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and distribute them to the correct polling stations.

A posting on Masca’s Facebook page stated a similar initiative was made in the 2018 general election, “albeit on a smaller scale”.

In the coming general election, Masca said, it has been expanded to include more collection locations.

Apart from returning the ballot papers to Malaysia, Masca said its initiative also includes disseminating information and running promotions on the general election.

The initiative, it said, was to assist students facing the expected barriers in discharging their democratic right.

Among the barriers they are already facing is the need for them to find witnesses for their ballot papers.

Masca said they are also assisting the students on the late arrival of their ballot papers, with the high cost of international express post and the threats of delays due to floods in Australia and Malaysia.

To pay for the costs the postal initiative will incur, Masca said it will organise a crowdfunding exercise.

Proceeds will go towards the extra luggage fees the volunteer runners will incur, local postage fees, PO box rentals and refreshments for ground volunteers.

Youth movement Undi18 had previously said it was also organising a project to bring back 50,000 overseas ballots to ensure more Malaysians get a chance to vote in the general election.

Its co-founder Tharma Pillai had said they will be working with 13 youth and student organisations in 10 countries to achieve this goal.

The participating countries are Australia, United Kingdom, United States, Turkey, Morocco, Japan, Germany, Egypt, Singapore and Qatar.

Undi18 had successfully advocated for the amendment of the Federal Constitution to reduce the minimum voting age in Malaysia from 21 to 18 years’ old. The group started off as a student movement in 2016, under the umbrella of the Malaysian Students’ Global Alliance.

Malaysians will be voting in the 15th general election on November 19, with nominations slated for November 5. – October 31, 2022.