KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 — Merely 7,824 Malaysians overseas have registered as postal voters by the February 18 deadline for the Johor state poll, according to The Star.

In a report published today, the local daily said that 7,000 of those who registered as postal voters were from neighbouring Singapore, while the remainder were from a dozen other countries.

The Election Commission has yet to announce the official number of postal voters for the Johor state election.

Without disclosing its source, The Star reported that it understands that ballot papers have been printed and distributed to the overseas postal voters to fill up and return so they can be included on polling day, which falls on March 12.

A total of 2.57 million people are eligible to vote in the southern state election next week, after Malaysia lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 and updated its election laws to automatically register voters who come of age late last year.

Political analyst Mazlan Ali from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia believed that voters were not showing an interest in the Johor election if it was true that the overseas postal voters numbered just 7,000-plus.

“Political parties, especially those from the Opposition, worked hard to get Malaysians in Singapore to sign up as postal voters. During GE14, a large number of Malaysians in Singapore returned to vote.

“I think without the anti-hopping law being passed in Parliament, people have no faith in choosing or voting in this election,” he told The Star.

MIC vice-president Datuk M. Asojan told the newspaper that he was shocked by the reported number of postal voters as his party had estimated that there are nearly 100,000 voters in Singapore alone.

“Maybe many of the voters who previously voted for the Opposition do not want to take part this time as they are upset with Pakatan Harapan’s rule of the state for 22 months.

“There could also be some who don’t want to be part of this election as they do not like the hassle or they just do not trust postal voting,” he was quoted as saying.

Johor Amanah deputy chief and Kota Iskandar candidate Dzulkefly Ahmad was also taken aback by the number of postal voters who registered for the state polls.

“We now need to change our strategy and find a way to get people to use the land Vaccinated Travel Lane to come back and vote.

“We already have 10 seats that we won with less than a majority of 3,000,” he told The Star, adding that Amanah would need to work harder to get outstation voters to return to vote.

The EC has set polling day for the state election on March 12 while early voting is on March 8.