Out-of-state voters giving Johor state election a miss?
Some 2.59 million Johoreans are eligible to vote this March 12, with 36,729 of them being postal voters. - Bernama Photo.
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Citing apathy on current politics and other pressing concerns, especially those operating businesses or working out of state, some felt that the state election was not a major priority.
For mother of four, Nur Fazliana Mat Saad, 53, revealed that her children who are working and studying out of state have no interest in local politics and are unlikely to come back and vote in their hometown of Muar.
“I have a son working in Seremban and he manages a small restaurant there. I did ask him whether he would return to vote as he is registered to vote here but he said he is not bothered to come back and he has to work.
“Same goes for my daughter who is studying in Selangor. While she is making the trip back this weekend, she just wanted to spend time at home.
When asked whether she would go out and vote, Nur Fazila states she would rather “wait and see” and not made any immediate plans to come out and vote.
In the previous general election, social media was abuzz with Malaysians expressing their will to return to vote, even from overseas with the #PulangMengundi was used to link voters seeking donors and transport to their respective constituencies.
However this time, there seems to be a lack of fanfare of people returning to vote for the election despite political parties, pundits and non-Johoreans flooding social media for registered voters of the state to return to their respective constituencies to vote.
Prior to the election, organisations such as Undi18 were looking to help some 200,000 Malaysians working in Singapore to vote in this election.
They had even managed to help transport some 5,000 postal votes as of yesterday for the election, with an overall target of 7,800 votes.
Speaking to Sinar Daily, a PKR campaign worker familiar with the party’s efforts of calling out-of-state voters stated the reception on their efforts so far have been well but quite a few have stated they won't be coming back to vote.
“There are bigger concerns at this time. Many are still thinking of how to survive and looking at ways to improve their business. They may want to come back this weekend but politics is not on their mind.
“When we make calls for them to come back and vote they said they are not keen. All rather spend their Saturday morning doing something else,’’ said the campaign worker.
According to the Election Commission, 2,597,742 Johoreans are expected to go to the polls where 21,407 are early voters while another 36,729 are postal voters.
