The BN won a landslide victory. A victory for Zahid and Najib, truth be told.

It was actually a ‘perception’ win. Zahid and Najib need to show that they are in full charge of Umno and not Ismail Sabri who is just an Umno VP and well…just the PM!

Congratulations to Z-N combo. They have played Melaka and Johor well and now set their sight on GE15.

Once these two personalities can rally the troops during the Umno assembly, that would be the rabbit punch which would deliver a death blow to Ismail and the Minister-GLC cluster.

However, I am here to talk about why only 50% turned out to vote.

There are some serious things that BERSIH and other civil society entities must press on the government and the people to change. If not, come GE15 we will be a Kerajaan 40% or 30%, a morally ‘conceptually illegitimate’ democratic nation. The government of the few, and not the majority.

Firstly, I think that the state and federal government must declare a public holiday one day before a state or federal election. That would be the Friday. That would give time for voters to return home and cast their sacred duty of electing their children’s leaders of the future.

The government must also be asked to impress upon all companies to provide paid leave for voting in a by-election.

We must make every effort to maximize voter turnout in GE15 or else there is no one to blame but ourselves for having criminals, bigots, extremists and incompetent officers in our state and federal government that will determine the future for our children.

Now, if the government does not want to award a public holiday because fewer voters work to its advantage, then I must appeal to all Malaysians to allow the eve of the election day be a paid leave or an official free day.

For college students, exams must be postponed, assignments extended and classes rescheduled.

These things are all within our powers to do ourselves without depending on an opportunistic government to stay in power with low voter turnout.

The other matter is the condition of the polling day.

There should not be voters standing up with a payung in any polling station!

Times for voting must be carefully scheduled within the number of chairs available and shade from the sun and rain must be provided.

No two ways about it! People should not wait more than 20 minutes to cast their votes.

Next are the COVID-19 voters who are only in stage 1 or 2. They must be allowed to vote.

The incident of the Covid voter charged with violating the SOPs and fined RM1,000 is grossly unfair.

The voter was doing a sacred duty and no one provided any SOP for her to safely cast the vote.

There was also no instruction that Covid voters cannot vote. If I had a touch of flu, I would still vote. Why not Covid 1 and 2?

Perhaps the EC can provide a different lane or place or these voters can vote from home using electronic means. Macam-macam boleh buat!

In GE15, tens of thousands will not be able to vote if there were no SOPs for Covid patients.

Finally, there is the problem of apathy among the voters.

One group of voters feel it is not important for them to vote as it is just a hassle and a waste of time.

Another group of voters would feel that none of the corruption issues, extremism issues or an unjust wealth distribution has anything to do with them.

Another group is angry that what they want in the last election they did not get quick enough.

Most voters, especially the young, do not even know that they are the owners of this country and are entitled to all the wealth it can offer by voting in the right and honest person who will give it to them.

Ideally, for voter apathy and ignorance, universities and colleges should have more forums and engagements with politicians and civil servants. But unfortunately, most universities care only about graduating students on time and MyRA research points.

Shamefully, universities, especially the private ones, are the culprits of voter apathy and ignorance.

There is zero political activism in universities and colleges and almost zero forum on criticizing policies and mismanagement in governance.

In Islam, if one cannot pray standing, one can pray in a sitting position. If one cannot sit then one can pray lying down with movement of the hands and neck. And if one were paralyzed, one can pray with the movement of the eyes.

We must make every effort to maximize voter turnout in GE15 or else there is no one to blame but ourselves for having criminals, bigots, extremists and incompetent officers in our state and federal government that will determine the future for our children.

(Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor of Architecture at a local university and his writing reflects his own personal opinion entirely.)