GE15: Volunteers race against the clock to deliver postal votes from Japan

PETALING JAYA: A group of Malaysians are racing against the clock to ensure ballot envelopes from postal voters in Japan reach polling centres here in time for polling day.

Over the past week, Ong Xin Yi, 36; Damia Yasmin Shaharudin, 22; and Bazilah Idris, 38, have been working with dozens of like-minded Malaysians collecting postal votes from all over Japan and getting them back to Malaysia before Saturday (Nov 19).

Ong, who recently moved to Japan three months ago to be with her husband, said she had taken on the same task in London during GE14.

She said although she had prior experience doing this, working in a new country with no connections brought about fresh challenges.

She also noted some prefectures in Japan did not have many offices for international courier services, making it difficult for Malaysian voters not living in major cities.

"I had no Malaysian friends as I've only been in Tokyo for three months. One day my colleagues whom I worked with before in London asked me if I could start something similar. So I am very glad that Kak Bazilah from Ikram Muda Antarabangsa (Iman) Japan and Damia reached out to me, who have been great to work with," she said.

Damia, who is president of the Malaysian Students' Association in Japan (MSAJ), utilised her connections when laying out the groundwork for the task.

"We started at universities and asked if we could set up collection points in campuses or in nearby areas," Ong added.

Collection points were then established in areas in and outside major cities, including on the island of Kyushu.

Some volunteers even used their home addresses as collection points, while others scrambled from train station to train station across Tokyo to meet up with fellow Malaysians to collect the ballot envelopes by hand.

"Initially, we had 39 ballot collection points but we added more over the past few days for a total of 43 in the final leg.

"We had so many issues!" Damia exclaimed, including receiving an envelope without the address of the returning officer and even a ballot paper for a voter residing in Japan that was misspent to London.

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

"The first bag we used was too small and we had to find a bigger one as the number of ballots kept on increasing.

She said even as she was on her way to the airport to pass on the last batch of envelopes, she had to make U-turns twice to return home to pick up more.

"I was so worried I would not get to the airport on time," Bazilah said.

All three said that late or non-receipt of ballot papers was the most common complaint from voters.

"At least 5% of voters here didn't receive their ballots or get to send off their ballots as it came too late," Bazilah said.

Damia added that some started receiving their ballots slips from Nov 8 but there were some who only received theirs as late as Nov 16.

"Some voters even gave up trying to pass us their ballots," Damia said.

They sent off the first batch of ballots on Thursday (Nov 17) on flights from Tokyo and Osaka. More will be flying out on Friday (Nov 18).

"One of our flyers, whom we call 'Kak Aisyah', flew back despite being pregnant. She insisted on doing it and said she wanted to carry out her national duty.

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

"Demi Malaysia," Ong said.