Students abroad eager to cast their vote

CAMBRIDGE: A group of Malaysian students at the prestigious University of Cambridge is among the more than 3,000 absent voters worldwide eagerly waiting for the mailman to deliver their postal ballots.

Starting today, the Election Commission (EC) will mail the ballots to overseas voters at their given addresses via Pos Laju.

This direct move is the first ever by the EC.

The voters will have to mark their ballots and mail them back at their own expense to their respective Returning Officers (ROs).

The ballots must reach the ROs by 5pm on May 9.

Several Cambridge students were excited about voting, but worried about whether their ballots would reach them in time, as well as the high cost to courier their ballots back to Malaysia.

Firsttime voter Muhammad Kaiser Karim (pic), 28, said he had written to the EC to clarify the postal voting procedure as it costs £50 (RM275) to courier the ballot home.

“Many of us are from different constituencies, so I emailed the EC, requesting that those of us from the same state be allowed to send our ballots together.

“That same day, the EC said yes,” said Muhammad Kaiser, who will be sending his ballot together with 15 other Malaysian students.

“We will courier our ballots to a family member, who will either send them by Pos Laju or deliver them to the ROs in the respective constituencies,” said the postgraduate student, who is pursuing his doctorate in neuroscience.

In the 2013 general election, the EC sent the ballots to the Malaysian missions overseas. Voters would go to the mission to mark their ballots and the embassy would then send the ballot papers back to Malaysia.

Although Muhammad Kaiser felt that the old system was cheaper and easier, he was still excited about casting his vote for Kuala Selangor.

“It’s not right to just sit back and do nothing when the country’s future is at stake,” he said.

English Literature student Shameera Nair Lin, 22, was not sure if her application had been processed.

“I wrote to the EC on April 12 and haven’t heard back yet,” she said, adding that the short campaign period meant the ballots had only 11 days to reach Malaysia.

“The postal service is not consistent. We need at least a month,” she said.

Shameera also noted that the cost of sending the ballots back might deter many from voting,

Engineering PhD candidate Ahmad Zuheir Zaidon, 26, agreed, saying he preferred the previous procedure where everything was coordinated by the Malaysian diplomatic mission.

The students are members of the Cambridge University Malaysia Society.

Its president Amir Fariq Anuar, 21, said there are some 200 Malaysian students in Cambridge, 80% of whom are undergraduates. The rest are postgraduates.

He said the new postal voting procedure was more convenient and transparent, but the tradeoff was the concern that the ballots may not reach Malaysia on time.

There are 3,653 overseas absent voters in this general election.

Absent voters comprise diplomats, members of the armed forces, public servants, fulltime students and their spouses.

Other overseas Malaysians who meet the EC’s criteria also qualify to vote by post.