THE Covid-19 cluster in Tawau, Sabah has struck fear in voters who initially had flight tickets to return to vote in the state polls today, said a group who had been assisting them.

Pulang Mengundi Sabah, who had been aiding low-income Sabahans in the peninsula to buy flight tickets to return for the polls, said about 40 of them who were to vote in the Tawau area, on Sabah’s southeastern coast, had decided not to go.

The 40 had to abandon plans to return due to the fact that the area is now a red zone after a cluster broke out among prison detainees.

The campaign’s co-coordinator, Aaron Denison Deivasagayam, said most of the 40 feared going back and catching Covid-19 in Tawau and even had family members who were being screened for the virus.  

Other Tawau voters could not return to cast their ballots as they feared losing their livelihoods if they were forced to undergo quarantine once they returned to the peninsula.

“Some of these voters earn a daily wage. They were prepared to go back and we had bought their tickets,” Aaron told The Malaysian Insight.  

“But their employers told them that if they were put in quarantine in Sabah or when they came back, they would lose their wages.

“Because they need to put food on the table, they decided they could not risk going back to exercise their democratic right.”

But about 15 of the Tawau voters they helped were insistent on returning home despite the pandemic to cast their ballots, he said.  

The group collected RM145,090 through public donations to buy 330 tickets.  

They worked with an airline that charged them a flat rate of RM400 for a flight either to Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan or Tawau.

However, the group had to pay extra for 11 last minute return tickets that cost RM491 per passenger.

Of the 330 tickets, 275 were redeemed and the passengers flew back to Sabah with the last ones scheduled to return tomorrow morning.

Among the remaining 55 Sabahans, 40 did not return due to Covid-19 while 15 disappeared.  

About 60% of the returnees flew back to Kota Kinabalu, 35% to Tawau while the remaining 15% headed to Sandakan.

Those who were eligible had to prove they had been registered to vote in the polls and that they were earning below RM3,000 per month.

“The monthly income range for all our returnees was between RM500 and RM2,300,” he said.  

About RM2,450 was spent on reimbursements, phone bills and administrative costs, while RM1,810 was for face masks and hand sanitisers

Aaron said about RM7,000 that was left over in donations will be used to reimburse students who had bought their own flight tickets back.

“The plan is to maybe subsidise about 50% of their costs since they don’t earn any income. We might also put some of the money towards a campaign to help Sarawakians go home to vote in their state elections.” – September 26, 2020.