HKU's Malaysian students question election results back home

A group of 30 Malaysian students, most of whom were too young to vote, gathered on Monday at the Democracy Wall at Hong Kong University to vent their deep distrust of Malaysia’s election results that brought the governing coalition its 13th straight election win.

The messages they posted on the wall included: “I am against Dirty Politics” “Unfair! Rigged!” “I want democracy, not magic” and “Democracy is dead”. The posters were written in Chinese, English and Malay.

The school’s student union issued a poster saying: “Fair elections and justice done, this is what we all demand for Malaysia, HKU students got your back.”

A 20-year-old female student from Malaysia, said: “It’s hard to figure out what is true or not, but when I see all these photos and videos online suggesting election fraud and the government is claiming they’ve had a clean election, I want answers.”

Another student, 22, voted at the Malaysian consulate in Hong Kong last week and she said the experience left her with serious suspicions.

“When I was voting and just about to mark the ballot, I got a phone call from a private number. I luckily didn’t pick up because then my vote would’ve been disqualified.