How Much Will It Cost You To Balik Kampung To Vote

Written by Haziq Alfian

Malaysians will return to the polls on 19 November for the 15th general election. As is usually the case, many of us have our polling stations back in our hometown – despite residing elsewhere in the country.

While it is not impossible for most of us to find the funds to pay for a weekend back home to do our civic duty, it’s still an additional expense that’s not in our monthly budgets. So we asked ourselves, how much more do we need to spend this month to include this extra trip back home?

First, let’s clarify what expenses we are including in this cost breakdown. We assume that accommodation is not an expense as you are likely to have somewhere to stay. So, the only cost we’re going to include here will be transportation costs, such as petrol and tolls and bus/airplane tickets.

Additionally, we are not including the additional transportation costs associated with not driving; such as calling a Grab or taxi to the airport.

North and south destinations

Okay so to start our cost breakdown, let’s have a look at the costs of going back to your hometown if your hometown is located in the north.

Here’s the cost breakdown for all the most popular destinations in the north and south parts of Malaysia. Unsurprisingly, the most expensive trip is if you’re making your way from Johor to Perlis, which is a whopping 824 kilometres. If you’re driving, the trip will cost you around RM80.05 in fuel (calculated using a MyVi’s fuel consumption, because MyVi is the most popular car in Malaysia) and RM74.51 in tolls. 

This means that the total cost of the trip will be RM154.56, which is cheaper than travelling by bus (RM163) or flight (RM444). However, the trip will be taxing on your body as it is going to be 9 hours 16 minutes drive. You also have to consider the strain on your car if you’re going to drive it that long, which means that it will probably need a service before the trip to avoid the risk of it breaking down during the drive.

Meanwhile, for the other destinations, almost all of them are cheaper if you’re driving compared to taking the bus and flights, except for from Kuala Lumpur to Johor, where a bus is the cheapest option.

The east coast

Now that we’ve covered the north and south, let’s have a look at destinations on the east coast. On the east coast, the most popular voting destinations are Kelantan and Terengganu, so we’re going to cover only these two destinations.

For destinations on the east coast, again, it’s not surprising to see that the trip from Johor to Kelantan is the most expensive one, especially on the flight tickets as it’s a whopping 710 kilometres trip. However, some of you might be surprised by the low toll rates, but this is because there are no tolled roads on the trip.

Peninsular Malaysia – East Malaysia

If your home town is in East Malaysia and you work in Peninsular Malaysia or vice versa, the option to drive all the way home is off the table for you.

You have to start with the fixed cost of a flight. The average one-way fare is about RM300 or higher as the date draws closer.

Another added cost that you’d want to consider is the land travel cost. Due to the fact that the whole of East Malaysia only has three International Airports, you might have to take a bus from the airport to your hometown. The bus trip can cost up to RM75 one way. This brings the minimum cost close to RM800 for the return trip in travelling expenses alone!

Even for a salaried executive, that additional RM800 is a big hole in the monthly budget so imagine how costly it will be for a student who is still in university or young graduates who have just started working.

Resources to help you go back and vote

While it can be expensive for you to go back and vote, what are your alternatives? Don’t worry, because of the goodwill and the sense of community among Malaysians, there are several initiatives that can help you go back to your hometown to vote.

• CarpoolGE15
  This initiative on Twitter called the CarpoolGE15 allows you to arrange carpools with other people heading in your direction; and share the cost of travel.
• #UndiBanjir
  This non-profit organisation aims to help as many Malaysians to go home to vote, so you can also find help over there. #UndiBanjir is holding a crowdfund to help Malaysians make the trip back home to vote, so if you’d like to contribute or you think you can use the help to go back and vote, you can contact them for the details.
• Jom Balik Mengundi
  If you’d prefer to take flights back home to vote, then you can also check out Malaysia Airlines and Firefly’s special ‘Jom Balik Mengundi’ campaign. It offers a 20% off for domestic flights from 11 to 27 November 2022. For this campaign, Malaysia Airlines has already added 26 additional domestic flights while also upgrading 16 domestic flights to a bigger aircraft so it can fit more passengers. Meanwhile, Firefly has added up to 70 flights from Subang and Penang to selected domestic routes.

The General Election is an event that happens every five years, so this is our time for us to do our civic duty as Malaysians and help steer the country to the right direction.

So, even though it can be costly and challenging, try and make the trip to your hometown and vote. Remember, your vote matters more than you think.