COMMENT | As I marked the ballot paper on the train en route to London's Heathrow Airport, I realised my hands were shaking.

My ballot paper arrived at 11.45am on the eve of the election and thanks to the generosity of strangers, it will arrive at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 2.25pm on polling day. 

My husband Razman Mazlan will try to rush it to my returning officer by 5pm. It is so tight and I don't know if he will make it, but I tried. God knows we tried.

I ran to the train station straight after signing for the package, to the Overground then the Jubilee Line, the Bakerloo and the Heathrow Express and then to the departure lounge of Heathrow Airport's Terminal 3, sprinting alongside two others I had never met before, courier envelopes under our arms.

We handed our ballot papers to a stranger, no questions asked. She was boarding the 2.20pm flight home, thanks to the generosity of yet another stranger who this morning thought "I have to do something" and forked out £700 to buy the ticket. 

Last night, she only had one person's ballot paper to carry. Today she had 34, because so many others were like me, dropping everything after receiving our ballot papers in these last hours of the campaign period and dashing to the airport for a chance to make our votes count. 

We pooled our money at the airport to repay the generous stranger - her name is Amira, that is all we know - and we managed to raise £160. It is not enough. And it will never be enough. For that feeling she gave us, a group of strangers at an airport terminal, all the money in the world is not enough.

I thought my GE14 story was over when my ballot paper didn't arrive by last week. Courier express delivery to KL takes three to four days. In fact, it took seven days to reach London.

But I didn't account for the kindness of strangers. I will remember this for a lifetime.

AIDILA RAZAK is a former Malaysiakini journalist and is on a Chevening scholarship to pursue a Masters in digital journalism in London.

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