JOHOR BARU, Nov 16 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) said it has arranged express bus services for about 1,600 students to go back to their hometowns and vote in the 15th general election (GE15).

Deputy vice-chancellor (student affairs) Prof Dr Shamsul Sahibuddin said a total of 43 buses, including three belonging to the university, would be used for this.

"Those keen will only need to pay a cost of between RM20 and RM50, according to their destination of their respective hometowns.

"Besides the three buses owned by UTM, the rest are commercial express buses that were rented by the university,” said Shamsul to reporters after overseeing the operations at UTM tonight.

Shamsul said the preparations were handled by the university’s student representative council after they collected the names of undergraduates interested..

He said UTM was not making any profit from the bus transportation.

"The initiative was to assist those who wanted to return to their hometowns and villages to fulfill their responsibilities for the GE15 on November 19,” he said.

Student Atiqah Alias said she was grateful for the service as it would help those who wanted to vote in their respective hometowns.

"The initiative also saves the student's expenses because usually the price of a bus ticket to return to my hometown in Penang is RM75, while a plane ticket is RM150.

"As a student, the cost is quite a burden, so I immediately took the chance when the university offered a ticket price of RM35,” said the 21-year-old biomedical engineering student.

Another undergraduate, Sim Yee Xuan from Alor Setar, Kedah, said she was also happy with the initiative provided

"This is initiative is good as most of the bus ticket sold online have already been sold out,” said the 18-year-old design and technology student.