The systems applications and product consultant’s concerns were confirmed when she saw social media users lamenting the challenges in finding the funds and making the journey back to their home towns.
“In the US, the date for presidential elections is fixed. But here, it is not set in stone and so it’s difficult for people to plan their journey home early,” the 31-year-old told FMT.
Feeling the need to help voters exercise their civic duties, Gan and her boyfriend, developer Wong You Jing, moved quickly to set up a website, www.pulangmengundi.com, to act as a platform to help those in need of financial help.
“The idea was to have a place where those who needed financial aid or subsidies could ask for them, and people who want to help could directly do so,” Gan said.
But as fate would have it, the domain had already been purchased by another trio, Timothy Teoh, Grace Look and Andrew Loh, who had their own idea of setting up a website to facilitate carpools for people heading to their home towns.
“We reached out to Timothy, Grace and Andrew, who were complete strangers. We then agreed to put our ideas together for one website.”
Visitors to pulangmengundi.com can request to be part of a carpool or subsidies for travel expenses. They can also sign up to lead the carpool or contribute towards travel expenses.
“We don’t hold any money. Anyone who needs help has to provide some basic details like their identity card and phone numbers, email and Twitter or Facebook profile so that donors can verify that they’re registered voters.
“Ideally, if a person needs subsidies, it is better that they purchase their bus or flight ticket so that donors know their money is really going towards helping someone exercise their right to vote,” Gan added.
The site, which was launched last Friday, has already attracted some 4,000 people as donors and 2,000 carpool drivers. It has also connected them to voters who either need funds or transport.
“We’ve received 934 requests for subsidies, with a third of them from Sabah voters.
“We’ve also connected 1,100 people to be carpool drivers,” Gan said, adding that RM8,030 had been pledged in subsidies.
Gan said they were working with other groups with the same goal, including carpoolGE14, #pulangmengundi and balik.undirabu.com. The last website involves crowdfunding to charter buses for certain routes.
“This way, if the people need transport to places covered by the buses, they can take the bus so that there is more space for those who need to carpool.”
Two weeks after GE14, all data submitted to pulangmengundi.com will be deleted.
“We might set it up again for GE15, since we have already developed the model. But for now, we’re focused on this coming election,” Gan said.
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