M’sians in Japan race to get ballots home

PETALING JAYA: With the clock ticking towards polling day, a group of Malaysians is racing against time to ensure ballots from voters in Japan reach polling centres on time.

For the last week or so, Ong Xin Yi, 36, Damia Yasmin Shaharudin, 22, and Bazilah Idris, 38, have been working with dozens of like-minded Malaysians all over Japan to collect and bring the votes back home in time for election day today.

Even since the polling date was announced, they have been working around the clock and the country to ensure ballots reached Malaysia before Nov 19.

Ong, who helped to fly back postal votes during her stint in London in the last election, said that while she had prior experience, a new country with no connections brought fresh challenges.

She also noted that some Japanese prefectures did not have many offices for international couriers, making it difficult for those living outside major cities.

“I don’t have Malaysian friends as I’ve only been in Tokyo for three months but the colleagues I worked with in London asked me if I could start something similar. So I am very glad that Kak Bazilah from IMAN Jepun and Damia reached out to me. They have been great to work with,” Ong said.

Damia, who utilised her connections as president of the Malaysian Students’ Association in Japan, laid the groundwork.

“We started at the universities and their representatives. So we began by asking if we could set up at least one collection point in each campus or a nearby area,” said Ong.

Collection points were then established in and outside major cities, including Kyushu.

Some volunteers even set up collection points at their home addresses while others scrambled across train stations in Tokyo to meet up with fellow Malaysians to hand over the ballot papers.

“Initially, we had 39 ballot collection points and more were added in the last few days. The total was 43 by the time we reached the final leg of the collection,” Damia said.

“We had lots of issues. They included having no returning officer address and we even had someone in London who received a ballot meant for a voter residing in Japan.”

As the day passed, more ballots kept coming in, leading to some last-minute jitters.

“The first bag we bought was too small and we had to change it a few times as the ballots kept increasing. I even had to go home twice because last-minute ballots were coming,” Bazilah said.

“I was so nervous that I might not get to the airport on time.”

All three said the late delivery of ballot papers to voters was a constant complaint.

“From our survey, at least 5% from our voters didn’t receive their ballots or didn’t get to send off their ballots as they came too late,” Bazilah said.

Damia added that while some had received their ballots between Nov 8 and 10, there were those who only got theirs as late as Nov 16.

“That is ridiculous given the tight deadline we had to pass the ballots to our runners. Some gave up trying,” she said.

The first batch of ballots left Japan on Thursday via flights from Tokyo and Osaka. More flew out yesterday.

“One of our flyers, we call Kak Aisyah, flew back despite being pregnant. She said she wanted to carry out her national duty.

“Damia is busy with her studies, Kak Bazilah has five kids to take care of and I am a working mother with a little baby but these responsibilities did not stop us from loving our country.

“Demi Malaysia,” Ong said.

Ong, Damia and Bazilah spoke to The Star via Whatsapp in an interview on Thursday night.