SINGAPORE: A sample count for Singapore’s presidential poll on Friday (Sep 1) has former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam ahead with 70 per cent of the vote, according to results published by the Elections Department (ELD) at about 1040pm.
Former GIC chief investment officer Ng Kok Song is second with 16 per cent of valid votes, followed by former NTUC Income chief Tan Kin Lian with 14 per cent.
Sample counts give an early indication of the election outcome but “the election result could be different”, said ELD.
“Counting is still in progress. The public should wait for the announcement of the election result by the returning offficer, Mr Tan Meng Dui, which will be broadcast live on television.”
The counting of votes started after polling stations closed at 8pm, with more than 2.7 million Singaporeans expected to have casted votes in the country’s first contested Presidential Election since 2011.
Sample counts – which were first publicly released by ELD at the 2015 General Election – are done at the start of the counting process.
A counting assistant at each counting place will pick a random bundle of 100 ballot papers and count the number of votes for each candidate.
The votes will be added up, with weightage given according to the number of votes cast at each of the 1,264 polling stations.