The Elections Department (ELD) said on Wednesday that more than 6,500 Singaporeans who are expatriates have registered as overseas voters for the 2019 Presidential Election. Former GIC Chief Investment Officer Ng Kok Song, former Senior Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and former NTUC Income Chief Executive Tan Kin Lian are among the contenders vying to become Singapore’s ninth president. The candidates’ names were already made public.
3,432 of the total foreign voters will cast postal ballots, while 3,217 will cast their ballots in person at overseas polling places. Following revisions to the nation’s election legislation passed in March, this is the first election in Singapore to use postal voting. With the modifications, qualified Singaporeans who are residing abroad can now vote by mail.
Singaporeans must have resided in Singapore for at least 30 days in the three years prior to registering as an overseas voter in order to be eligible to vote from abroad. A reminder to quickly return the envelope along with instructions on how to download their postal ballot paper and return envelope using Singpass from ELD’s website have been sent to registered postal voters.
To be declared legitimate, the return envelope with the marked postal ballot must be postmarked by Election Day on September 1 and delivered to the returning officer in Singapore by September 11.
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An ePoll letter containing information on the voting place has been delivered to voters who registered to vote at abroad polling places. Singpass can be used to view this ePoll mail online through ELD’s Voter Services. Numerous cities, including Beijing, Canberra, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Washington, are home to the foreign voting locations.
This year’s registration shows a higher level of engagement than the previous contested Presidential Election in 2011, which had 5,504 registered overseas voters. On Election Day, registered voters from abroad who return to Singapore may cast their ballots at the local polling place of their choice. The poll card, the voter’s ePoll card accessed via Singpass, and the ELD Voter Services app all contain this information.
Each overseas voter is only allowed to cast one ballot during the election, either abroad or at the allocated polling location in Singapore, according to ELD. The 2023 presidential election will take place on September 1.
