THE United Kingdom and Eire (Ireland) Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC) has withdrawn from the VoteMalaysia Coalition, after the coalition refused to send postal votes to East Coast states in the upcoming state elections.

In a statement, UKEC said that VoteMalaysia, which was built on the values of democracy, non-partisanship, and transparency, had lost its way. 

VoteMalaysia is a non-partisan initiative formed by student movements across the globe to facilitate postal voting on a global scale

“The involvement of the student chapters of the ruling coalition parties, namely the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP), has eroded its founding value of non-partisanship,” UKEC said in a statement today which it also posted on Instagram.

The student group said that some of the recent decisions made by the movement were seen to be contradictory to the founding values of VoteMalaysia.

“On June 16, VoteMalaysia tentatively agreed to provide logistical coverage to facilitate the postal voting process in only Kedah, Negri Sembilan, Penang, and Selangor. 

“The remaining states, Kelantan and Terengganu were to be left out of the initiative.

“Then on June 24, VoteMalaysia made a decision to seek volunteering support, and manpower from political parties, primarily those within Malaysia’s ruling coalition, to conduct volunteer work for VoteMalaysia.

“These decisions are undemocratic, partisan, and not transparent, the group said. 

UKEC said that their values are no longer aligned with that of VoteMalaysia of which UKEC was a founding member.

“We believe that the spirit of democracy no longer exists. We have therefore decided to withdraw from the VoteMalaysia Coalition.

“UKEC takes this opportunity to thank the Malaysian Student Community and the Malaysian Diaspora in the United Kingdom and Ireland for their continuous support when we led VoteMalaysia, which culminated in the success of returning home 6,932 votes in the 15th Malaysian General Election. 

“We thank our VoteMalaysia partners and wish them well,” it said.  –  July 5, 2023.