M’sian helps students send ballots home from Beijing

BEIJING: Receiving their ballots only four days before polling, Chua Guat Hong has rallied her friends to help Malaysian students in the capital city get their postal ballots back to the Election Commission before the 5pm deadline today for GE15.

The 29-year-old Malaysian, who works in a private company and has lived in the Chinese capital for 11 years, said the ballots were only received via a delivery company at about 5pm on Wednesday.

She and her six friends then quickly organised an Amazing Race-like operation to ensure they and some 100 students from Beijing Normal University, Peking University, Tsinghua University and Beihang University didn’t miss the chance to determine the future of Malaysia, Bernama reported.

It wasn’t easy because there were tight Covid-19 restrictions and the students were not allowed to leave campus, while security guards also denied Chua and her friends entry.

“Believe it or not, all the postal ballots were tested for Covid-19. It’s the procedure for all overseas mail.

“The students were overjoyed to see me and thanked me for helping them fulfil their responsibility to vote,” said Chua, from Batu Pahat, Johor, who is a first-time voter.

She said a Wechat group called “Ge15beijing” was created to aid communication and distribution, and that the marked ballots had been sent to Malaysia via courier.

Although exhausted having worked till midnight to get the job done, Chua is happy that she was able to help the students.