SINGAPORE: More than 6,500 Singaporeans have registered as overseas voters for the upcoming Presidential Election, the Elections Department (ELD) said on Wednesday (Aug 23).
The field of candidates to become Singapore’s ninth president was announced on Tuesday: Former GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song, former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam and former NTUC Income chief executive Tan Kin Lian.
A total of 3,432 Singaporeans overseas will be voting by post and 3,217 will cast their votes in person at overseas polling stations.
This is the first time postal voting will be used in an election. Changes to Singapore’s election laws were passed in parliament in March so that eligible Singaporeans living overseas will be able to vote by post.
Singaporeans can qualify for overseas voting as long as they have resided in Singapore for 30 days in the last three years preceding the date of registration to be an overseas voter.
“Postal voters have been notified to download their postal ballot paper and return envelope,” said ELD, adding that the postal ballot paper and return envelope can be downloaded from ELD’s website using Singpass.
“We encourage postal voters to mail back the return envelope early.”
The return envelope containing the marked postal ballot paper must be postmarked before Polling Day on Sep 1 and reach the returning officer in Singapore by Sep 11 to be accepted for counting.
Overseas voters who have registered to vote at an overseas polling station have been sent their ePoll letter indicating the polling date and hours for their overseas polling station, said ELD.
A copy of the ePoll letter is also accessible online at ELD’s Voter Services using Singpass.
The overseas polling stations are in Beijing, Canberra, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Tokyo and Washington.
In the last contested Presidential Election in 2011, there were 5,504 registered overseas electors. Of these, 3,375 turned up at nine overseas polling stations to cast their votes.