Pritam Singh Discusses Potential Trial of Mail-In Voting in Upcoming Presidential Election

SINGAPORE: In a May 21 (Sunday) Facebook post, Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh noted that the Presidential and Parliamentary Election Acts being amended this year to include postal voting and other changes suggests that the presidential election later this year could be a “dry run” for voting via post before the practice is extended to parliamentary elections.

“However, with the majority of our Presidential Elections ironically being walkovers, this remains open to question. (So much for a President needing an electoral mandate to carry out his/her duties, but that is a story for another day!),” Mr Singh, the Leader of the Opposition, noted.

On March 6, Parliament voted for amendments to Singapore’s election laws that would allow eligible voters overseas to mail in their votes.

Mr Singh added in his post that the exact number of Singaporeans living abroad who are eligible to vote is uncertain, but it’s believed that there are more than 200,000 Singaporeans living overseas.

His post about mail-in voting was sparked by a conversation he had with a Singaporean who works in Sydney, Australia, who left the country about 20 years ago. Mr Singh met him while out with Workers’ Party East Coast GRC members for their Hammer Outreach program, during which they distribute the party’s organ, on Sunday morning.

Mr Singh was visiting the hawker centres at New Upper Changi Road and Block 16 at Bedok South when he stopped to chat with the man, who was enjoying mee rebus with his Singaporean friends.

Mr Singh acknowledged that the political impact of Singaporeans living abroad on parliamentary elections is still unknown, but he added that “one can easily imagine these votes having a potentially critical role in marginal constituencies”.

“It is no secret that the design of our political system is tilted in favour of the PAP. As has been done repeatedly for decades, the last-minute chopping and changing of electoral boundaries is one example.

“The Workers’ Party and other opposition parties have kept our politics contestable, and offer a more balanced political system to all Singaporeans, with a view to ensure that our political diversity as a nation is proportionately represented in Parliament,” wrote Mr Singh.

He encouraged overseas Singaporeans to check whether their names are on the Register of Electors and if they are not, to have their names restored “so that you can make your vote count – because every vote matters!”

/TISG

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