NOVEMBER 16 ― I have been living in The Netherlands with my family since 2020. When I read that GE15 was coming up, I looked on the Malaysian Embassy website to find out how I could register as a postal voter.
Registering on MySPR
I set aside some time for this process, as I have experienced a lack of user-friendliness on government websites, and loading times tend to be longer from abroad.
However, I was pleasantly surprised when the entire process only took me less than 10 minutes, and each step was clear, including what to expect after submitting my application.
Rather than a tedious process of submitting documents, all I needed to do was take a photo of my IC, and a selfie together with my IC, to prove my identity.
Three days later, I was informed by email that my application had been successful and that I only need wait for the postal ballots to be sent out.
The wait
As the date of the election approached without any sign of my postal ballots in the mail, I got concerned about getting my vote back to Malaysia on time. From experience, mail from here takes 3-4 weeks to get back. It was already a week to the election.
Meanwhile, I had read that all postal voters need to have a Malaysian adult witness to check the ballots. Fortunately, I live only 15 minutes away from a Malaysian friend who could be my witness, so I didn't need to use the (very useful) services of Global Bersih, who were coordinating witnesses for overseas voters.
It actually arrived!
I had read articles on overseas voters being disappointed by how late their ballots arrived, and was already accepting that mine just might not arrive on time to make a difference.
But on November 14, my doorbell rang, and a DHL delivery man handed me a bright yellow envelope marked Express, sent by the Election Commission of Malaysia. Excited, I opened the envelope to find a brown envelope, and inside that, the two white envelopes required for postal voting.
Getting it back on time
After doing the necessary, I searched online for ways to get my ballot back on time. DHL was one of the possibilities, with delivery between 3 to 5 days, and a sending fee of 60 euros. I also looked on the Facebook group for overseas voters to see if there were more efficient ways to get my vote back.
Happily, I found someone who happened to be on a work trip to Amsterdam, and who was collecting postal votes to bring home personally on November 17. I contacted him, and sent my sealed envelope to him.
Fantastic coordination
I am so very impressed by the coordination of all the volunteers who are helping overseas voters. On arrival at KLIA, there is another runner who will be collecting and bringing the ballots to Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Once there, there are local state runners who will be delivering all the postal votes by hand.
Now all we can do is wait.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
